Rewritten
by Swiftstart
Summary: When Zelda finds a strange blue haired swordsman in Hyrule field with no memories she takes him in; only for the pair of them to quickly realize that they are just two pawns in a plot of revenge. Join heroes Link, Ike, Marth, Pit, and Chrom as they stumble through and try to save not only themselves, but the worlds and people they love.
1. Chapter 1

"Your grace, I very strongly advise against your going out right now! Without Link, the field is just a warzone of monsters!" The Captain of the guard pleaded with Zelda for the twelfth time as she pulled on her riding gloves and saw to it that her horse was properly saddled.

"Now honestly Braloon, I will be fine. I went out riding in Hyrule Field before Link and I am quite content to do so now. Besides, I am not going unarmed, that would be ridiculous." The princess patted the sheath of her sword for emphasis.

"Yes, but your highness, Link's disappearance was without a doubt out of the ordinary." Captain Braloon pressed. Well, she couldn't deny that.

Exactly four days ago during an assembly in which Zelda addressed the subjects of Castle Town on matters regarding city safety and wellbeing, and the recent revision of the castle guard, Link had vanished. Literally vanished into thin air. One minute the green-clad hero had been standing at her side, silent as ever and then the next, poof, he was gone. And absolutely everyone saw. They were in the midst of a public affairs disaster. How was Zelda supposed to convince her people that the world was safe now that Zant and Ganon were gone if her main trump card regarding public safety literally disappeared in front of thousands of people? Naturally her first instinct had been to contact Midna, to make sure that the Twilight Queen hadn't pulled some sort of prank and teleported Link just during the crux of Zeldas speech. It only figured that Midna knew nothing. Zelda's instincts had been wrong. And that meant that Link's disappearance was likely caused by less than savory figures.

But who? That's what Zelda couldn't wrap her mind around. Trading relations with the other kingdoms were good. Ganon was gone. Zant was gone. There was simply no one left to whisk him away like that. No one. Which is why she was going on what had once been a routine ride. She needed to clear her mind, needed to think. Once she had a point of reference, she could see to seeking out and collecting Link. But first she had to have an idea of where he was.

"Your majesty, please," Captain Braloon begged again, hands held together for emphasis, "Reconsider!"

"I'm sorry Braloon but I really must go out on this ride." Zelda said firmly, hopping side-saddle onto the back of her great white stallion. "Now if you'll excuse me, this is the only window of freedom I have before I have to go back to doing paperwork," And with that she rode out of the stables and towards the field.

Honestly, she could really hate those people sometimes. They were always trying to get her to do things their way. Well, that's not how things worked in her kingdom. She was the princess and therefore she was in charge, and goddesses above if she wanted to go ride in the monster infested field then by golly she was going to ride.

She very quickly regretted that sentiment. Stupid white horse. Moblins must have seen her from ages away. The little green things soon had her surrounded; pulling at her dress, grabbing at her horse, getting stomped on. The little demons! She cursed quietly as one tore the hem of her dress. Well then, time to get mean. She drew her sword only to have it promptly knocked out of her hand by a moblin with surprisingly good aim. Great. She'd have to resort to magic. Which, while she was pretty good at it, was usually better for long distance maneuvers. It tended to either blow up in your face or spook your stupid half-wit white horse. As if sensing her thoughts, the horse bucked sending her flying into a crumpled mess on the ground. Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Now where was her sword? Oh, there it is. She spotted it lying on the other side of the horse, too far away to reach. What the dumb animal didn't have the decency to at least buck her toward her weapon?

Moblins fell upon her in a wave of clubs and found weapons. She managed to blast off a few of them with balls of pink magic, but it was no good. There were far too many of them. Oh goddesses, if she did get out of this one she was going to get an earful from her advisors. She prepared herself for the worst, that was after all, the way princesses did things. Only the worst never came.

"Hyyahhh!" A shout came from somewhere behind the mass of moblins and a wide variety of squeals and shouts told her that it came armed. Could it be? She blasted the moblins that were causing the most vision problems and saw for herself. And… it wasn't. What she was looking at was a very battered and torn up looking swordsman with a ridiculously long golden sword, dark blue hair and a cape. A cape. And here she thought only Ganon was so fashion backwards as to wear a cape. Who the heck was this guy?

"Look out!" He shouted bashing down about five moblins at once with his crazy sword. It couldn't really be gold. That would be silly. Gold would get banged up in an instant. It must be some other material. Maybe it was magic? When he threw it in a truly unlikely manner and it miraculously returned to his hand she decided that yes, it must be magic.

"Are you ok?" The swordsman asked as the last of the moblins dissolved into nothing. He was breathing heavy, and his strange blue coat was torn through and stained with blood.

"Am I alright? On the contrast I believe it is you who needs the medical attention," Zelda said, shocked and amazed that he was even still standing, let alone smashing through entire swarms of moblins.

The swordsman looked over himself, apparently only just now realizing that he had large gaping holes in his person.

"What the..?" He said dumbfounded.

"Those wounds weren't inflicted by the moblins were they?" Zelda asked carefully, reaching towards him.

"I- I don't know…?" He began to sway and before Zelda knew it, had landed in a bloody, messy heap, right on top of her.

"Well, wonderful." She exclaimed using all of her limited body strength to push the great muscular lug of a man off of her. "What am I going to do with you?"

An idea struck her then. A completely crazy one. Here she needed a hero who could take out moblins and reassure the people. And what should happen? One literally fell into her lap. He certainly was no Link, but he could probably help her find the lost hero. And if anything help keep her trade lines open with the Zora. Take that Braloon, the ride was well worth it. She had gone on this ride to find a solution to the missing Link problem, and apparently she had found one. She just had to hope her instincts were right.

Authors Note:

And so it begins!

This is my new 'big' project now that I've finished Chaos Personified.

It's basically Nintendo Sword Boys: THE CROSSOVER EVENT (in stunning printed-worD)

Stay tuned for all your favorites; Link, Pit, Ike, Marth and Chrom :D

oh and Zelda.

Lots more Zelda.


	2. Chapter 2

Ike's head buzzed like it'd been slammed into a brick wall about thirty or forty times. Ungh. Goddess, where the heck was he? He forced himself into a sitting position and took a good look around. From what he could tell, he was in a room. In the dim lighting it was hard to see exactly but it looked like it really just had the bed, a dresser and a small desk. What little light there was came in through the small divots where the thick curtains failed to cover the window. Yick. Someone actually thought those curtains were a good idea? They were some sort of thick brocade thing and blotted out just about all outside light. Ike had absolutely no idea what time it was. For all he knew it was actually nighttime and that was moonlight. He stared dumbfoundedly at his surroundings for a few more minutes when he remembered that he still had no idea where he was.

Slowly, carefully, he pulled himself out of the bed. Wincing as his injuries protested from underneath some pretty thick bandages. Right. He'd gotten hurt. Somehow. He in all honesty had no idea where those slashes all over his torso had come from. They sure didn't have anything to do with those little green monster guys. Well, that was just another mystery to solve. First things first, solve the easy one. He winced again as his bare toes touched the floor, not because of pain this time, but because it was freezing cold. Wasn't I wearing socks before? He wondered, numbly walking over to the window. As he walked he did his best to judge just what a mess he was in. The clothes he was wearing now weren't his; they were some kind of pajama things made out of a too-expensive feeling fabric. He was also bandaged, a lot. Just his torso though, which was a relief. His hair flopped wildly into his eyes, and he wished he could hold his bangs back somehow. Where the heck had his things gone? That girl he'd saved before? Had she taken them? Obviously she'd taken him to wherever this place was. He pulled the curtains open, hoping that at least one of his questions would be answered.

Well, great. He thought dully, pushing his hair out of his face and getting a look through the window. This sucks. I mean, that's a great view and everything but I have no idea what it's of. Or where it is for that matter. The window looked out over a city. It was about two or three in the afternoon, and beyond what he guessed were castle walls a hustling and bustling city was laid out before him; penned in by walls that were probably used for something other than organization. It was the old sort of city that was probably actually 15 other cities built on top of each other out of the sheer stubbornness that is the human condition. Why move someplace else when you can just build on top of some shoddy old building? Too bad a lot of cities are like that, Ike thought bitterly, looking around for any familiar landmarks. Nothing. There were just a lot of winged pyramid things everywhere. Nothing that screamed home to him.

Wait. He stopped then, catching his breath. Wait, where even is home? His heart skipped a beat. Where am I from? He couldn't remember. I have to be from somewhere, everyone is from somewhere. His mind flew as he desperately tried to pull up anything. Faces, names, places he'd been. Nothing. He couldn't remember a thing. Absolutely nothing. Was his name even really Ike? What if it wasn't? Why'd he even think that, suppose his name was something else. Like Paris or Geoff or something really weird or something.. No stupid. He chided himself. Of course your name is Ike. In fact, that was about the only thing he was certain of. But then what about everything else? Did he hit his head? Lose his mind? How old was he even?

Calm down Ike. He told himself, taking a deep breath. You're overreacting. Probably you just can't remember anything because youre freaking out. So… think of easy stuff. Stupid simple stuff, like say when's your birthday Ike, hmm? ….Drat. He didn't have the slightest idea. Ok, not exactly reassuring. Ugh, so far as he could tell all he could remember was his name and saving that rich lady on the horse. Whoever she was. She must have taken him back to well, wherever here was. A castle? He figured it had to be a castle, what with the crazy view and all. Maybe I should try and track her down. The door wasn't locked; he could see that from where he was. He could just search the place until he found her, yea. Demand an explanation, or at least, ask for help. Then he remembered he was wearing light blue silk pajamas, complete with weird little winged pyramids embroidered into them. Yea, he was just going to stay right here. Someone would come check on him eventually, if not just to change his bandages.

As if on cue, the door opened and in came a maid with a tray of liquidy looking food. Oh goddess, how long was I out? Being spoon fed soup, how embarrassing. His stomach gurgled in agreement and he wondered how long it had been since he'd last had a proper meal. With like, meat. Potatoes. Solids in general.

"Hey-" He began, aiming to get the maids attention. The maid gasped when she saw him out of bed.

"Oh my! Sir, do get yourself back in bed this instant! It would not do well for the princess' injured guest to hurt himself romping around the room!"

Romping? Ike opened his mouth to protest only for the maid to point very firmly at the bed. Irritated, he got back into the bed, and made a big show of getting under the covers. When he had done this the maid spoke again.

"Good. I'll inform the princess that you've awakened. Stay here. She'll want to speak with you." And just like that the maid was gone. She even took the tray of soup. A princess? He thought numbly, I saved a princess? That's just crazy. Whoever I am, I'm pretty sure that I'm nowhere near princess level. I'm just.. I'm just... Who am I kidding, I have no idea who I am even am. Heck, I could be the king of a whole freaking continent for all I know. Wonder how long it'll take her majesty to come in. Will she be busy getting all princessy-pretty to talk to me? Hope not. I'm in no shape to talk to a princess, even if I am the king of the world, I don't even have socks on. Hope she brings food though.

The door opened again and this time the rich lady he'd saved before came in. Now that she wasn't surrounded by weird little short monster guys, he could see her properly and was almost ashamed that he hadn't realized she was a princess. She was wearing so much gold and the patterns on her dress looked hand embroidered, oh and she was wearing a crown, that alone should have been a dead giveaway.

"Greetings," The Princess said coming in and standing at the end of his bed. He had absolutely no idea how to respond. Should he bow? Wait no, he was in a bed. Stupid. What should he say? What were you supposed to do when you met a princess? Were you allowed to say 'hi' or did you have to say something more formal?

"Princess." He said awkwardly, and almost immediately regretted it. Now he sounded like some sort of presumptuous idiot. However, If he was out of turn, the princess made no inclination.

"I'm glad to see that you're awake." She said, moving closer to him in her really flowy dress thing. It was so long that he couldn't see her feet, so she looked like she was gliding across the room on her skirts. Suddenly he was glad that the maid had taken the soup, knowing the way his luck seemed to be of late, Ike would probably accidently spill it on her dress and be given the dry-cleaning bill of the century.

"I hope that you are feeling well, I had only my best doctors and healers see to your wounds," The princess continued, breaking his thoughts. Great, now he looked like a distracted nit-wit.

"Never been better," He replied, not technically a lie, the only other time he could remember involved having large holes in his chest. "Listen uh, how long have I been out?" He asked, watching the princess nervously, she had pulled up the desk chair and was sitting beside him now.

"Almost three days," She replied solemnly, "My healers say that you must have gone through quite an ordeal before our rather eventful meeting,"

"No kidding." With the curtains open from his 'romp around the room', he could see the princess perfectly. Her long brown hair was contained by weird hair wrap things on the front two strands, and her dress was modest but not unattractive. She was without a doubt beautiful. What caught him though were her eyes, they were like cold blue stones. They seemed to be studying him from top to bottom with a slow and careful analysis. Drifting across his every feature and doing calculations that he could only guess at. Something else about her eyes bothered him, it was like they belonged in a person much older, like they had a sort of visible wisdom in them.

"Do you remember much of what happened?" The princess asked him seriously.

"No." He admitted after a moment of consideration. Could he trust her? From what he could tell she was probably the daughter of some king, and had probably insisted that her Daddy help out the strange sword boy she found out in the wilderness. "I don't remember anything."

"That's unfortunate." She replied, and then a hairs-length too long a second she added, "And I hope it isn't too forward for me to ask, mostly I just can't imagine what could have happened to you that left you in such a state."

"Ah." He frowned then, trying to get even an idea of what had happened to him. Nothing. So far as he could tell, those injuries had just appeared there out of nothing. This whole nothing business was really starting to annoy him. And what had she been going to say? Clearly she knew something, had her healers found something when they were patching him up? Was it bad? Please tell me I don't have some sort of evil bad guy brand on my forehead or something. Why isn't there a mirror in this room?

"I must thank you for your assistance the other day," The princess continued, evidently sensing his uneasiness, "If you hadn't come to my aid warrior, I would surely have perished,"

"It was nothing." He said with a shrug, "I was just trying to do the right thing."

"It was hardly nothing," She said firmly, "And your efforts were truly valiant, please, what is your name?"

"Ike of-" He stopped. It had been an automatic reaction to say 'of' he just couldn't remember what he was well, of, another nothing. "My name is Ike."

"Ike? What an unusual name." She said thoughtfully. My names unusual? Ike thought a little miffed before she spoke again, "I am Zelda, ruler of Hyrule." And she thinks my name is unusual?

"I thought that you were the princess." Ike said confused. There went the 'Daddy please help the sword boy he has large holes in him' theory.

"You are from elsewhere, so I can understand your confusion." Zelda said apologetically, "Hyrule has an unusual tradition in which all females born to the royal family are named Zelda, and are given the title of Princess, regardless of whether they are the ruling monarch or not."

"Must make family reunions interesting," Ike said dryly.

She softened then, and just for a minute her stone eyes seemed more like the sky, "Yes, yes it certainly does." But then the softness disappeared and the stone returned. "Ike," She said, her stony blue eyes staring right into his, well, whatever the heck color his were, he honestly couldn't remember, eyes, "I need to ask you a serious question."

"What is it?" He asked, now really concerned that he couldn't remember what his own face looked like. This nothing business was a real pain.

"Have you recently seen a swordsman by the name of Link?" Zelda asked with the utmost serious.

Ike sighed before answering, "To be honest Princess, the first thing I remember is seeing you getting attacked by green midgets." He braced himself, not sure what to expect from her royal highness now that he'd let that cat out of the bag. And who was Link? The name meant nothing to him.

"You remember nothing? Truly?" Zelda asked leaning in closer as if somehow that would make her able to see the big gap in his head where memories were supposed to go. "By nothing, what do you mean?"

"I mean literally nothing. I.. I don't remember who I am, where I come from, how I ended up in the field or-"

"Or where your injuries came from." Zelda finished.

"Exactly." Ike nodded, "It's all just a big, well, nothing."

"Maybe not." Zelda said, lifting both hands towards him. Instinctively he backed up,

"Um, not to be rude or anything Princess, but what are you doing?" He asked nervously as her gloved fingers came closer to his face.

"I'm going to see if I can repair your mind. It's probable that whatever you went through before had a traumatic effect on your mind- giving you temporary amnesia." Zelda replied, "Now if I may?"

"Just one thing. If this goes wrong I'm not gonna wind up clucking like a chicken or anything am I?" Ike asked nervously.

"Don't be ridiculous." Zelda said shaking her head, "Now be calm."

He closed his eyes and braced himself for.. well whatever she was going to do.

She placed her hands on either side of his head and a strange, but not painful, flowing feeling passed through his head. He felt like he was floating, like up and out of himself, as if there was nothing to ground him. And then it hit him; that's because there was nothing. Oh. oh goddess. I have nothing. I am nothing. I.. I'm just a name. I'm just Ike. Whatever the heck that even is. I'm just Ike. And that.. that's nothing. I'm nothing.

"Oh Nayru's wisdom. What in the world?" He heard Zelda say, and then he was grounded again. He blinked several times, and once he had regained his bearings he saw how freaked Zelda was. Her stone blue eyes were wide with what Ike guessed was the Princess equivalent of shock.

"Told you I remember nothing Princess." Ike remarked darkly, crossing his arms. Zelda sat back in the desk chair, her hands returning to her lap.

"You don't just remember nothing Ike; there is nothing." Zelda said shaking her head, "And that.. that is impossible."

"So there never was anything?" Ike asked confused. What was she getting at? What did it mean? Ugh.

"No, not that. There definitely was once something. I can tell that much; it just seems to have been removed. By force." Zelda explained, her stone eyes analyzing him again, but now almost as though he weren't even human.

"By force?" She could tell that?

"Yes.. as if.. as if.." The Princess hesitated before continuing, "As if someone reached into your mind and ripped the memories out with a jagged knife."

The imagery made him flinch as he imagined a blade being placed to his head.

"Why would someone do that?" He asked, he wasn't anyone. He was nothing. Granted, whoever he was before had to be someone, right?

"I can't imagine. But it does make me wonder…." Zelda trailed off in thought. Then she stood and looked at him stoney-eyed again, "Ike, are you capable of walking?"

"Sure. Where we going?" Ike asked, sitting up straighter.

"I have some things of yours that might shed some light on this matter." Zelda replied heading towards the door, "Are you coming?"

"Yea sure, just, can you find me some clothes first?" Ike asked, gesturing to the silky-blue pajamas.

"Of course." Zelda replied before disappearing through the door, leaving him, the nothing, alone.

end chapter 2

Authors Note:

Hey all :D

Hope you like what I have so far, trying something new and switching from emotionally distressed teenage DC sidekicks to emotionally distressed teenage nintendo sword boys. In the coming chapters we'll be seeing Link, Pit, Marth, Chrom and of course, more Ike all in varying states of emotional disrepair. Will Ike remember he's not a nothing? Keep reading and find out :3


	3. Chapter 3

Fully dressed in some sort of a green get-up with way too many layers, Ike followed Zelda down the hall to where she presumably was keeping his stuff. He hoped that stuff included scissors or something because his bangs were unbelievably in the way. And for the life of him Ike couldn't remember what he did before he was a nothing to keep them tame. For all he knew his hair was supposed to be slicked back. Yick, he hoped not. That just sounded gross.

"In here." Zelda said, finally opening a door and gesturing for him to enter. Without a word, he followed her in. The room was small and had quaint feel about it. There wasn't much in it; a desk set, a table, some chairs and lots of bookshelves. The walls were lined with them. Although some had more knick-knacks than books. There were also more winged pyramid thingies. Really it seemed like the only way these people knew how to accessorize was to smack a winged pyramid on everything. But what caught his attention were the things on the table. His things.

There was a spaulder, a shoulder plate that was a combination of blue metal and thick brown leather. Along with this were wrist and shin guards of matching blue metal, a large tattered piece of red fabric that Ike guessed was a cape and a whole lot of other junk. Outside of the cape the only thing that could be taken for clothing was a long strip of green fabric, tattered on either end but familiar. In fact, he knew exactly what it was for. Finally. Picking up the green strip he tied it around his head; pushing back his bangs at last. Now at least he could see properly.

"I'm sorry to say that your other garments were too destroyed to be recovered." Zelda said from behind his shoulder. Huh, he'd forgotten she was there.

"Even my pants?" Ike commented, picking up a bottle with some sort of liquid in it.

"Red blood, white pants. What do you think happened?" Zelda replied, coming to stand beside him. Was that humor? Huh, who knew her royal stoniness had a sense of humor.

"We weren't sure what a number of your supplies were- to be honest I was hoping you could tell us." Zelda said, nodding at the potion he was holding.

"Oh this is just a vulnerary," Ike said with a shrug, "Heals minor injuries. Guess I must have forgotten I had it."

Zelda looked at him in astonishment, "You remember that but you don't remember where you come from?"

"Well, it's common knowledge. You can pick them up at any market really and-" He stopped himself, "Why can I remember everything about a potion, but not even my own birthday?"

"I don't know." Zelda replied, carefully taking the vulnerary from his hand. He hadn't realized how hard he'd been gripping it. That would have been a waste.. would be furious with me if I'd smashed it.. ugh. Was that a memory? What was that? Who would be furious with me?

"What can you tell me about these other things?" Zelda asked delicately, pointing to the other belongings he sort of remembered. "Like what are these circular things?"

"Well that.. that's just gold. You use it to buy things." He gave Zelda an inquisitive look, "Please tell me you know how to buy things Princess or I might just lose it."

"Don't be ridiculous. Of course I do. We simply have a different form of currency. We use rupees."

"And what do those look like that you don't know what gold looks like?" Ike asked, genuinely curious.

"This," She reached into a bag he didn't even realize was there and pulled out a large green gemstone.

"It doesn't have any seals or markings- couldn't someone forge one of those pretty easily?" Ike observed.

"That would be-"

"I know, I know, ridiculous." Ike said before she could finish.

"What I was going to say was criminal." Zelda said shaking her head. "Anyways, let's continue. What can you tell me about this map?" Zelda pointed at the large unfolded piece of paper that was spread out on the table, separate from everything else. It was crinkled and clearly weather battered; both of the bottom corners had been pasted back together with another piece of paper as the base underneath.

"What about it?" Ike asked, outside of the fact that it was so beat up, he couldn't see anything significant about it.

"What about it? The language it's written in for one, that's not any language known to me or any of my scholars." Zelda said, pointing at the largest word on the map: Tellius.

"You can't read it?" Ike was surprised, he was pretty sure that he hadn't had a fancy education but he could still read the plain letters clear as day. "That says Tellius. It's the name of the continent. That we're standing on."

"That may be what it says but it's not where we are." Zelda said, contradicting him by pulling from a shelf a large map of her own. "We are in Hyrule." As she unfolded her map he saw that the landmasses on hers had absolutely nothing to do with his. And all of the names and labels were in a language he couldn't even begin to read; it was all lines and confusing shapes.

"Hyrule?" Ike said trying to find any consistencies, any similarities in the two maps. He found nothing. Drat, another blank.

"The land created by the three golden goddesses," Zelda said helpfully.

"Three goddesses?" Ike gawked, this was just getting weirder and weirder. He was pretty sure that there was more than one, but not three. And even then.. ugh, almost remembered something there.

"Of course three. What else would you expect?" Zelda asked, looking at him inquisitively.

"I dunno, two? One?" Ike said helplessly. A very troubled look came across Zelda's face then, her stone eyes impossible to read.

"Ike. Tell me about these goddesses."

"I don't know how much I can say, my memories not that great and-"

"Just try. Talking about the potion, helped you to remember that clearly. And besides, these would be common knowledge answers, not anything regarding your actual past."

Somehow Ike doubted that. "Well, theres two. Yune and Ashera. Goddesses of Chaos and Order." He paused then, trying to remember more, "And… they slept or something for a long time. And then.. I don't remember." Why couldn't he remember this? This should be basic. Stupid. Like religion was where morals come from right? So if he can't remember that then… how could he remember himself? "Ugh!" he couldn't help it. He threw his fists down on the table, crinkling the old maps under his fists. Maps of two different places he didn't remember. He couldn't remember this, this Tellius. It was all just names. Crimea. Daein. Kilvas. He couldn't remember anything about them. He had a faint idea he'd been to them before. He'd been to a lot of them, but he couldn't piece any of it together. And Hyrule? Well he sure never heard of that.

"Ike. Be calm. Getting upset will not solve anything." He heard Zelda say, which only served to irritate him more. What did she know?

"Be calm? I can't remember anything. It's all a blank. All of it. Sure I remember some dumb potion but that doesn't matter. People matter. Places matter and I can't remember either of those things!" Ike stormed. "I just want answers, something. Anything."

"While I can't make any promises, I may have a few ideas that can be taken as answers." Zelda said carefully. "For instance, I have heard in books and old legends of other worlds. Worlds ruled by different gods. I myself had a very… interesting experience with the Twili King Zant; the King of another Realm. While I never saw this realm myself, I understand from description that it is quite different from this world here. So perhaps, you too are from another world."

"Is that possible?" Ike asked, "I mean, other worlds? That sounds outlandish. Like something out of legend. Fairy tales. Not real life."

"Very. And if anything your appearance gives me some answers." Zelda continued thoughtfully.

"Oh? What answers would those be Princess?" Ike asked, what questions did she need answered? And why did what he looked like matter?

"You wouldn't know this, being a stranger to Hyrule, but just three days before your arrival our own hero, Link, disappeared in front of a crowd of thousands, out of thin air. As if he were never there. It's left my kingdom in a state of unrest." She was folding and unfolding her hands as she said this, clearly, this 'hero' Link, meant a lot to her.

"And how does my appearance give you answers?" Ike asked, not quite following.

"I do not think your appearance is a coincidence Ike. There are no coincidences, certainly not in Hyrule. Everything has a purpose or a reason. I think someone took Link away and put you here." Oh. appearance, of course, she means my coming here. She unfolded her hands then and looked at him with those blue eyes again, and this time, he saw through them like they were glass. She was terrified. And confused. And well, human.

"Why would someone do that?" Ike asked, her logic seemed sound. But he couldn't understand why someone would toss swordsmen around like that. "And do you think he's.. like me? No memories or anything?"

"I cannot imagine why, but yes. He absolutely is in a state like yours. That much I am certain of."

"Or at least you'd like to be." Ike said pointedly. She sure was making a lot of assumptions out of nothing.

"Yes, I'd like to be. Thankfully I believe I know where we can learn the truth." Zelda said, eyes returned to stone.

"Really?! Where? How fast can we get there?" Ike asked, leaning forward, anticipating her answer. Answers. Real answers. Something tangible.

"Be calm Ike. It will not be an easy journey. Essentially what we will be doing is collecting an ancient relic of the royal family that can be used to give us a direct connection with the experts." Zelda explained.

"Experts?" She'd lost him there. Who could possibly be 'experts'?

"The three goddesses." She replied as if it were obvious.

Ike spluttered, "We can just walk up to the goddesses and talk to them?"

"Well no, not exactly. I can, because I am.. unique." As she said this she rubbed her right hand with her left. He got the feeling she was hiding something.

"Unique in that your royalty?" Ike guessed, arms crossed. What did she have a crown birthmark there or something? Is that why she wears those crazy long gloves? He had to figure that the tops of them would be falling down all throughout the day.

"Not quite. But that is a suitable answer." Zelda said, clearly tense. "Now, if I were you I would take up that ridiculous sword of yours and get something to eat."

"Ragnell isn't ridiculous." Ike said defensively, looking to his radiantly golden sword; practically glowing with sheer awesome power.

"It's a little over half your length. Gold. And has 'rag' in it's name. It's a ridiculous sword." Zelda said from the door, already leaving.

"I don't think it's ridiculous." He said to himself once she left the room. When he realized the thing didn't even have a sheath though, he had to admit it; the great thing was pretty ridiculous.

* * *

Authors Note:

Hey all :D

Ike's being angst.

Ragnells a sword.

Zelda finds both man and sword ridiculous.

It is beautiful.

More coming soon :D

End Chapter 3


	4. Chapter 4

Ike tightened the straps to his shoulder plate apprehensively, he'd been sent back to what he guessed was Zelda's private study to pack up his few belongings for the trip. He had a feeling though she really was just keeping him from eating her out of castle and kingdom. He hadn't eaten solid foods in he didn't know how long. And he had a feeling that wherever he'd been before appearing in Hyrule, Tellius maybe, he hadn't been eating well there either. And so, well, he ate something like four plates of 'cucco' eggs, goat bacon, goat breakfast steak, potatoes, fresh fruit, something he guessed was sausage and lots of buttered bread. He'd also drunk about five glasses of milk. Much to the displeasure of Braloon; the captain of Zelda's guard.

Braloon didn't like Ike much at all. At first Ike wasn't sure why, then he saw a portrait of this Link guy on one of the castle walls; Ike was wearing his clothes. The green tunic and chainmail he'd felt warm in because of all the layers was Link's signature look. Apparently the guy only owned green. All Ike could figure was that Zelda was either trying to prove a point, or that it was the only thing she had that sort of fit him. Ike was just glad Zelda hadn't tried to get him to wear the dumb hat too. The fact that he was parading around in Hyrule's missing heroes clothes wasn't the only reason Braloon wasn't happy. Apparently Link had been an integral part of re-vamping the castle guard, which clearly needed it, just based on the cowardly little men running around, saying nasty things in his wake. So far as he could tell, no one except her royal rulerliness wanted him there, which wasn't exactly a good feeling.

Ike pulled on his cape. It would be warm over all of Link's layers, but he felt like he needed it. For balance if anything. Or maybe a chance at memory. Something instead of a nothing. He had a feeling that this wasn't his first time eating at fancy castles with princesses, but he couldn't remember any details. Which was again, frustrating. To top it all off, Zelda had made him switch bags. From his nice convoy bag that could hold a handy five items, for instance, five swords, which though impractical was pretty cool, to a silly tiny belt-bag. He slowly, irritatingly opened it and stuck the vulnerary inside.

"Happy Princess?" He grumbled aloud, though no one, not even the princess, was around to hear. "I used your tiny- whoa where did it go?" The vulnerary had disappeared deep inside of the bag. Great. It was a potion eating bag. Frustrated, Ike stuck his hand in to go after it, to find that his hand just kept going. What? Before long his was shoulder deep in the thing. He had found the vulnerary already; he just wanted to know how deep the thing was. It seemed to go on forever. Ok, a magic bag. Better than a convoy bag. Definitely better. Pulling his hand out of the endless abyss he stuffed his other stuff inside; a couple of 'seal' things he vaguely knew were useless to him right now but couldn't remember what they were for, a 'heart potion' from Zelda, the map, and a really girly looking staff thing with a blue orb on top that he had no idea how to use or what it was for. Or where it came from for that matter. Zelda came in as he finished stuffing the staff into the belt pouch of holding.

"Princess." He said nodding as she came in, "Is it time to go already?"

Zelda nodded, and patted the sword on her belt as if it somehow excused the fact that she was still wearing a hand embroidered white princess gown that really didn't stand a Branded's chance in Gallia out in the wild. Wait, what's a branded? Gallia was one of those places on the map right? Urgh. This quest had better give them answers, because the nothings weren't even depressing like they should be. They were just annoying.

"Sure you shouldn't change into something more…" He hesitated, not sure what word he was looking for, "Quest-y?"

"Don't be ridiculous Ike. While it may not look it, this dress is perfectly suited for battle. And if it proves not to be, I have my ways." Zelda said stoutly, "Now come. The horses should be saddled."

"Wait, horses?" Ike said, suddenly nervous, "You didn't say anything about horses."

"Of course not, I thought it was obvious, how else did you think we were going to get to the Library of the Ancients?" Zelda asked, shaking her head.

"I don't know- I just sort of figured we'd walk." Ike replied helplessly.

"Walk?" Zelda snorted, as she led him down the hall, presumably towards wherever the stables were. "Don't be-"

"I know, I know, ridiculous." Ike said shaking his head. "But really though- riding isn't exactly a feature of my class."

"What is that even supposed to mean?" Zelda asked, her voice light with humor. Did she find it funny that he didn't want to ride?

"I honestly don't remember." Ike sighed, at wits end. "Look, I just really don't want to ride."

"Well too bad." Zelda said smirking, "You're about to become best friends with the fastest horse in all of Hyrule; Epona."

"Now that's just ridiculous."

"Hello.. horse." Ike said nervously looking up at the mammoth. When she said horse he had pictured something a lot smaller. This horse- Epona or whatever, was massive. He was pretty sure it wasn't even the sort of horse a person usually rode in battle. Or that usually got the nickname of 'fastest horse in Hyrule'.

"Quickly now Ike, we must act with haste." Zelda said, riding by, already on her big white stallion.

"I'm coming, I'm coming. Horse and I are just getting… acquainted." He said with a weak grin. The horse snorted and hot angry air flew over him.

"Sorry- sorry horse!" He stammered, leaping back about three feet instinctively. He could have sworn that in that moment the horse gave him a look of, 'Are you freaking serious? This guys riding me? Ah hay no.'

"Hey, now, you wouldn't happen to be Link's horse, would you?" Ike asked, creeping closer to the monster again. The horse gave him a look of 'Well duh. Who else would you think I belong to? Zelda already kitted you up in my humans gear stupid.'

"Yea, you are aren't you.." Ike muttered, "Listen, I don't know how territorial or whatever you are Horse, but I'm trying to find Link got it? So If you promise not to buck me off or anything and get me to where I need to go… I'll find him for you, got it?"

The horse looked meaningfully at the green tunic Ike was wearing, 'And?' Horse seemed to be asking.

"And I'll be sure to give Link back his clothes." Ike finished. The horse, Epona, whatever, nickered in agreement and stepped out of her stable on her own. 'Let's go.' Horse seemed to be pointedly saying.

"All right, all right, I'm going." Ike grabbed hold of saddle and pulled himself up onto the horses back. Goddess it was a lot higher off the ground than he'd thought. And he'd thought it was pretty high before. "So no bucking right?" Ike said nervously picking up the reins. You were supposed to hold those right?

"Neeiiigghhh!" Epona declared dashing out of the stables, Ike clinging on for dear life as the castle gates flew into view at speeds that were just too fast to be safe. I am definitely not the right class for this, he thought to himself, snapping his eyes shut as Epona jumped a small wall and made her way towards the white blobbish shape of Zelda that was up ahead and closing in fast.

This was it; they were on their way properly now. Zelda and him, they'd go to this library of the ancients and get whatever it was Zelda needed. They would talk to the Goddesses. He would remember who he was and where he came from; and he would go home. But first he had to figure out how to keep from falling off of the dumb horse.

Authors Note:

And they're off!

And next chapter we'll see one of our other sword boys in his own patch of non-horse related misery :3


	5. Chapter 5

Link jolted awake as all kinds of birds cried out warnings to one another and a sickening scent entered the air. Goddesses whatever it was, it _reeked_. Quick as a fox Link leapt up, pulled on his boots, grabbed his sword and shield and peered out at the world beyond the grove of trees he'd taken as shelter. Farore's breath! What were those things? Crawling out of the ground were monsters that were part-blob and part man. And he didn't have the slightest idea what they were. He just knew that they were ugly and he didn't know how to fight them. Well this was just great. He had a feeling that he usually had someone to tell him what was going on whenever he blanked. Of course right now everything was a blank so that was moot anyways. The things had mostly finished forming, and they weren't pretty. Some looked like old burlap sacks sewn together. Others looked like people, but they had bits missing and purplish skin. And purplish hair. And well, purplish everything come to think of it. With the exception of the one yellow blobby one, the things could very safely be described as purple zomb- no redeads. Purple redeads. Well, he'd just have to hope that his shiny purple sword could hack through purple zombie guts. It'd hacked through everything else so far and was about the only thing that felt familiar and truly safe to him.

He'd woken up in the woods something like three days ago, maybe, he wasn't entirely sure how long ago. He really needed to figure that out. But that wasn't exactly on the top of his priorities list, because he'd also woken up with some less than pleasant slashes on his chest and arms, and a throbbing headache to boot. He'd had no idea where he was or even who he was, and still didn't which didn't help matters. He didn't even have a shirt anymore. He'd had to use what was left of that for bandages. So all he had to his name was a bag full of gear, a useless map, a pretty awesome hat, and a drawing of well.. well what he guessed was his family. That was about the only explanation that made sense. It wasn't anything fancy, just a nice watercolor of a family of four. A large man in a yellow cape and three kids; two boys and a girl. Now Link was no genius but he had a feeling that he was the blonde boy perched next to the blue haired one. The only problem was that he couldn't remember any of their names. There was some sort of description on the back of the drawing but it was in a language Link couldn't read. And it wasn't even that he didn't know how to read, cause he could read the labels on the useless map fine; Ordon, Kakariko, Gerudo, not that any of those meant anything. Just a bunch of long, hard to say names. Regardless, things were looking pretty bad. He was out of potions and arrows, basically topless, and starving. Those definitely weren't ordered by priority. And he had an increasingly good feeling that he was bad at prioritizing. Just a few hours ago he'd stopped to help free a captive faun from a hunter's trap, bandaged up it's leg with what had been left of his shirt and helped it find it's way home to it's mother. And he'd done all this despite the small logic part of his brain screaming at him that deer was food, and he should eat it. The deer hadn't even given him anything when he'd finished the 'quest', though why he expected an unintelligent animal to give him anything was beyond him.

A squishy sounding growl from one of the purple redeads reminded Link that his top priority for the moment was to kill every moving purple monster thing in his path. Heres hoping purple squishballs drop hearts, Link thought to himself as he leapt head-first into battle. Bam! Back slice into the yellow bloop one. Swish! Spin attack slicing through four of them at once, purple sploop melting back into the ground as he went. So far, no hearts. Ah deku-nuts.

"Hyaahh!" He shouted as he dropped a helm splitter on the head of one that still had a good amount of armor and skin on. 6 down, 6 to go, may as well make this entertaining. He reached into his handy bag o'bombs and pulled out a nice big one.

"Urrgle grggle killlll…..grrg." Growled the biggest baddest one of the lot. It looked like it had tried to do it's hair with a rake and had scraped up it's face instead. Goddesses above it was ugly, this was going to be a compassion kill for sure. Sorry ugly, he thought with an internal snicker as he rolled the bomb towards it.

"Urg?" Ugly growled looking down at it with absolute stupidity, it's last thought was probably something like 'urgle kill ball urgle urg?'. With a satisfying blast Ugly was blown to smithereens. 7 down, 5 to go. Drawing his sword again Link dove at the others until there was nothing but stinking, rotting, purple mist left. Well done, well done. Link thought smugly, swiveling his sword around in his hand playfully before sheathing it. That was pretty gosh-darn heroic.

He was just about to check the area for cash and hearts when he noticed a ridiculously short boy wearing a comically large hat. A person! An actual non-purple redead person! Link took a step towards the boy, who in response promptly turned tail and ran. No wait! link thought desperately, you're the first person I've seen in days! Maybe even ever! He opened his mouth to yell, but then stopped, his throat closing up. People. It hit him then like a boulder dropping down on top of him, he remembered something about himself. He hated talking to people, it was like anytime he ever tried to talk to people, really talk to people, he just turned into gobbly goop like those purple redead. Sure he could say yes, no, I'm Link, but that was it. That was all he could ever say. And that… that was one thing Link knew for certain. If he didn't know anything else, he knew that he wasn't gifted with words. He had trouble with people and people responded to words. He was a freak. But what he lacked in vocal skills, he made up for with his athletic skills. Link took off running after the boy. The dash was going pretty smoothly until the kid started throwing fire balls.

"Leave me alone!" The kid shouted at him, sending fire ball after fire ball in Link's general direction. Link rolled, thankful that his shield was so crazy huge that it kept his otherwise bare back protected from the flame. The kid was gonna have to do a lot better than fireballs, Link had a feeling he'd seen those before.

"Stop it!" The kid was shouting louder and louder and more and more frequently. Who was he shouting for? There was no one to be seen. Hang on. Oh deku-nuts. The kid's got friends. Link lost track of where his feet were landing as he scanned the area quickly for any signs of other people, too quickly. In a grand galumpth his feet found a tripwire and was sent skyrocketing upwards.

What in the world? Once the blood had returned to his head properly Link realized that he was hanging upside down; a rope tied around his left foot held him dangling from a massive tree branch. A hunter's trap. He'd been caught just like that little baby deer. Great. He scrambled about to grab his sword, only for the thing to discover the power of gravity and fall right out of it's sheath and clatter to the ground. This was getting better and better. He was a good three feet off the ground and his sword was well out of reach. Well, no big deal, he'd just have to use his boomerang instead. As he reached for his pack however an arrow flew past his ear and planted itself in a tree trunk behind him. Rotating helplessly on his rope Link caught sight of the archer; a man with long light blue hair and a mean widows peak, but that wasn't the scariest thing about him, he currently had an arrow pointed right in Link's general face area. That first shot had been a warning. With him was the short boy in the big hat, another boy in an even sillier hat that was nothing more than a tin pot, and a large muscular man around Link's age with some sort of a tattoo on his shoulder and a very, very large sword.

"Whoo-ee I had no idea one of my traps could catch a man!" Tin-pot exclaimed brightly a- was that a log? Like from a tree? In his hand? Holy cow that had to be heavy. Doe he intend to use that on me?

"You've caught Panne and Yarne plenty of times," The archer said pointedly.

"Yea but they think a lot like animals, they're different." Tin-pot replied, "And that's usually on accident."

"Does it matter?" Tattoo asked his buddies, "Ricken, you said he took down an entire swarm of Risen? Singlehandedly?"

The short boy in the big hat, Ricken apparently, nodded, "Yes, it was like nothing I've ever seen! He used all these abilities I'd never seen before and took out most of them in one hit! He blew up the chief with some sort of magic orb!"

"Is this true?" Tattoo asked Link now. If I say no will cut me down and leave me alone? Link wondered. Instead, he nodded. He may not know who he is, but he was pretty sure that he was truthful.

"Remarkable." Tattoo said thoughtfully, bending down and picking up Link's sword. Link watched him cautiously, half expecting Tattoo to flinch and drop the sword. So far everything the sword had touched other than Link had fizzled and been smitten, granted that was with him swinging it at ridiculously high speeds and at unlikely angles.

"I've never seen a sword like this before…" Tattoo murmured, pausing as he ran his hand over the triforce insignia just before the hilt. "Ricken, isn't this a magic symbol? Doesn't Morgan have it on his spellbook?"

"If it's the one on Morgan's spellbook I'm afraid I can't help you, his book was crafted in the future." Ricken huffed, clearly stretching to appear taller next to Tattoo.

"Cut him down Donnel, I want to talk to him properly." Tattoo said, stabbing the Master Sword into the ground in front of him. He had already done the same with his own sword, and Link had a feeling it was something Tattoo did a lot.

"You sure bout that Chrom- we, your royalness um.. majesty uh- your kingly-ness" Tin-hat, aka Donnel, stumbled over the words. So Tattoo is a King, go figure. And his name's Chrom. King Chrom. Bet that tattoos actually some kind of a royal family birthmark thing.

"Positive Donnel, cut him down." His kingly-ness said nodding firmly at the boy, arms crossed. He had one bare arm and one covered one; probably so that he could show off his likely magic birthmark/tattoo thing. All Link could figure was that it must be cold to have one arm bare like that.

"Ok sir- if you say so." The boy drew a hunting knife from his belt and sliced the rope that held Link aloft, he failed to give Link a good signal though of when exactly he'd do this so Link landed on the ground in a heap.

"Oompth." He grunted, pulling himself to his feet.

"Sorry." Donnel said, an apologetic grin on his face, "I don't make them traps to be comfy or nothing."

It's fine. Link thought to himself, unable to force himself to speak. When it became clear to the others that Link wasn't going to speak, Chrom spoke again.

"What's your name swordsman?"

"Link." Link replied, looking Chrom in the eye, desperate not to seem uncaring.

"Link? That's an odd name. Are you from far away?" Chrom asked and Link panicked. He had no idea. He didn't even know where he was. What do I say? Yes? Do I shrug? Finally Link shrugged. He had no idea. That was the truth.

"Am I the only one who's finding that a very vague answer?" The blue haired archer said then, looking from Donnel to Ricken as if expecting them to agree with him.

"Virion, that isn't fair. You yourself are guilty of vague answers." Chrom said sharply turning back to the archer, Virion. Shaking his head then, Chrom looked back at Link, "Excuse him. He's just a little cautious of strangers. You clearly need help, how long have you been out in these woods? Three? Four days? From the looks of you you've been wandering out here for a while. No wonder you're tongue-tied. Listen, you're welcome to come back to camp with us. Our healers can get a look at your wounds and we can get you something to eat."

"And a shirt." Virion added slyly.

"And a shirt." Chrom agreed, "So, will you come?"

Free food and a proper shelter? Heck yes I'm coming, Link thought, already imagining a whole myriad of foods; goat, pork, chicken… and milk. He had a terrible craving for milk. He just had to hope that when they said a 'shirt' they meant something with two sleeves.

"Yes." Link said with a nod.

"Good. Oh and how foolish of me, We forgot to properly introduce ourselves. I am Chrom, King of Ylisse and leader of the Shepherds; the only force standing between Plegia and the world."

Well that's just a little melodramatic, Link thought dryly, nodding to show that he understood. Not that he had any idea what a Plegia is. Was that a person? A place? A concept? Though how you go to war with a concept was beyond him.

"This is Virion, Duke of Rosanne," He gestured to Virion like link should know where Rosanne was and that that should sound important.

"The mage is Ricken, and this is Donnel." He gestured to both of them in turn. Curious that Donnel doesn't get a cool title, Link thought to himself, he could at least be called trap-guy or something. Link nodded again, still trying to get his understanding across.

"Wonderful. Now that we are properly acquainted we should be going." Chrom said, a light friendly grin across his face. Not without my sword, Link thought to himself reaching for it. Chrom handed the purple blade to him.

"Left handed. Huh. That'll make you the only leftie in camp." Chrom said thoughtfully. Big surprise there, Link thought dully, while he didn't remember many specifics he was pretty sure that he was one of the only left handed people he knew.

"How'dya know that Chrom?" Donnel asked, picking up his log and getting ready to follow.

"Robin keeps a very extensive journal. Of everything." Chrom replied, shaking his head.

"Oh yea, I forgot." Donnel chirped brightly.

"How could you forget. It got stolen once." Ricken complained, eyeing Link suspiciously.

"I dunno, jus' did is all."

"Well let's go, Robin will wonder what's taking us so long." Chrom said, picking up his own sword and sheathing it, beginning to head off into the woods. Taking so long at what? Link wondered, following behind.

"Think Robin will be angry when she finds out that some other guy killed all the risen?" Ricken asked to no one in particular.

"Are you kidding? She will be furious. You know she enjoys pitting us against those things for 'training'" Virion said with a slight tut-tut sound for emphasis.

"Then we best hurry." Chrom said, his cape billowing dramatically as he walked ahead of them.

Things were looking up. And while these people were clearly battier than a cave of fire keese, they had food. And once he had food in him, and a shirt on, he knew that he could start looking for answers. Who was he? Who were the people in the drawing? If only he could ask one of them to read it for him… He supposed he could show it to them point but.. that sounded dangerous. Personal. He wasn't even sure if they could read it. Or if it even said anything more than 'Deku-tree paper brand' or something like that. Goddesses it would be embarrassing if that was all it said. He'd just have to try, and hope. No not hope, courage. Courage to step in knee deep and find out for himself. But first thing first, he needed a shirt.

Authors Note:

Surprise! It's Link! and isn't he a sassy little bugger in his head xD.

Did you notice the hint at CHAOS thats soon to come? :o

Tune in for more!


	6. Chapter 6

Why did I buy it? Lucina wondered to herself, wallowing in self-misery as she stared into her practically empty cabinet. Outside of her disguise-turned-fashion she really only had sleeping gear, stuff to clean in and… the one dress. She'd been so excited by it when she saw it in the store window; the bright colors, the wild pattern, the unique cut, but then she'd shown Mother and now she wasn't so sure. It wasn't like she'd ever have an occasion to actually wear it; they were at war after all. War was not a time for pretty dresses. War was a time for armor, swords and well, nothing that sparkled. When they'd gone into town the last time she and all the other girls had decided to go on a proper shopping trip. Dresses, shoes, the works. Naturally everything Severa or Cynthia tried on fit them perfectly and made them look well, amazing. But it seemed like every dress Lucina ever put on just reminded her that she wasn't the prettiest one by far. Cynthia got all the pretty genes in their family. There was a reason she'd been able to pose as a boy for so long, and that reason didn't go well with being able to fill out the bodice of a dress. So she'd decided to try and find something she thought Father would like… ugh. Maybe she should have just let Severa choose a dress for her. Sure it would have been more skin than fabric but… no. No that wouldn't be right, it'd just make things worse.

The sound of the Risen-hunting party returning broke her dress filled thoughts. They shouldn't be back so soon. Frederick hasn't even left yet to congratulate them on winning; something he always insisted on doing to boost 'company morale' even though half the time Robin didn't even send him off to battle. Something must be wrong. Grabbing falchion Lucina hurried outside of her tent just in time to see the top of Ricken's hat disappear into the med-tent, and Donnel dashing into Robin's tent. Oh no. Where was Chrom? She scrambled over to the med-tent, thoughts of her father on her mind. Gods, oh gods no! I knew I should have come along! I knew it! Gods, I knew it! Why did I let Robin talk us into separating? I should stay at Chrom's side at all times, he's just so darn breakable darn-it. The number of times she'd saved his tail from getting pulverized… and some of those times he didn't even know about! Bursting into the med-tent she pushed past Libra and Maribelle who were huddled around one of the beds.

"Chrom!" Lucina exclaimed, only to find that the man on the med-bed was not her father. He wasn't even a part of the risen hunting party. He was some blonde pointy eared stranger.

"I'm fine Lucina," Chrom said then. Lucina looked up. Chrom was standing calmly a little beyond blondies bed, entirely in one piece. What? She felt like she was missing some really key element here somehow.

Straightening and quickly tucking a stray hair strand behind her ear, Lucina apologized, "I'm sorry Father.. I saw that the party had returned early and I feared for the worst." Before Chrom had a chance to reply, Lucina hastily made a change of subject, "Who is this who you brought back with you? Is he a manakete?" She gestured towards the blonde boy reclining casually on the bed.

"This is Link. He's a swordmaster of some sort, he destroyed all of the risen before we even arrived."

"What, all of them?" Lucina gasped astonished. She looked Link over properly now. Had she forgotten someone? Some other shephard from the past- or a child from the future? She certainly didn't remember any 'Link'. And she had a feeling she'd have remembered this guy. He was completely topless, and seemed entirely without injury despite the small discarded stack of bloodstained green/tan fabric bandages on the floor next to him. At the foot of his bed were a few belts, arm bracers, a purple sword and a shield with an unfamiliar crest that had a weird winged pyramid thing on it. The pyramid was also on Link's bare left hand and reminded her of Robin's mark. She vaguely recognized the pyramid shape from one of Morgan's books, but the wings that decorated the shield were completely beyond her. But what really struck her were his eyes. Sure he had long pointed ears that didn't crumple up on the edges like the dragon ladies, but his eyes. His eyes seemed to dart across the room and study everything. They expressed 20 different thoughts and ideas at once as if he were analyzing everything like it was a puzzle to solve. Then the eyes stopped on hers and didn't move away. Oh gods no, he can tell I'm staring. Just look away Lucina, just look away. Come on now. Darn-it. she couldn't break the stare.

"Every last one of them. Never seen anything like it." Chrom said with a nod, finally tearing her away from the blonde-boy's eyes.

"Unbelievable." Lucina murmured as the door to the tent flew open; in flew Robin with Donnel in tow.

"Chrom!" The white haired inferno seethed agitatedly as she plowed her way in; Libra scurrying out of the way just in time. "Do you have any idea how much reeking boxes cost?"

"Um-" Chrom began, already without words.

"I mean Vaike may rack in bullion after bullion during battles but Goddess above those things are not cheap! What you couldn't kill even one measly risen?" Robin continued.

Lucina slipped cautiously back behind Robin, aiming to leave quietly and avoid the curfuffle, only instead she tripped on one of Link's boots and fell face-first onto the med-bed pointy-ears was resting on.

For two terrible awkward seconds Lucina stared right at those puzzle-solving eyes before finally shoving herself off of the bed and landing on the floor with a less than princess-like thump.

"Lucina! Darling are you ok? Oh you poor dear," Maribelle trilled, offering Lucina a gloved hand. "How-ever did you fall on that young man?"

"I- um. Uh." Just like her father moments before, Lucina was without words. She took Maribelles hand and accepted the help up.

"Oh is that the pointy eared sword boy?" Robin asked then, apparently only able to notice others if they had unfortunate things happen to them. "Your names Link right?"

"Yes." Link said, speaking for the first time. It occurred to Lucina that he hadn't said a word when she'd fallen on him, hadn't even reacted… so clearly 'falling all over boys' wasn't a good tactic for her like it was for Severa. Gods, why was she even thinking about that, how embarrassing.. she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear again in a desperate act to look calm, cool, and on top of things.

"What class are you Link? I honestly didn't think anything could take out an entire swarm of risen." Robin continued, "I mean, maybe a wyvern rider or a- nope, that's silly."

Link gave Robin a truly puzzled look and shrugged. What doesn't he know what classes are? I mean, supposedly even Donnel had something of an idea when we recruited him.. it's not that hard.

"Let's try this again, I see that you can use swords- can you use any other weapons?" Robin asked in her nicest 'please join us we need fresh meat' voice she could muster. Robin can be downright hilarious sometimes; she lets pretty much anyone in who can hold a weapon. Heck, Lucina figured that Robin would even recruit Walhart and Gangrel if she had the chance.

Link nodded, and then reached for the belt that had a bunch of little bags attached to it. What, throwing knives? Lucina wondered to herself, not much else could fit into here. Maybe something magic? Whatever it is it can't be anything big. But then he pulled out the bow and quiver. And the bag from inside the bag. And the slingshot. And the funny flat curved shaped stick thing. And a, was that a giant ball on a chain? Once he had pulled all of these really big items out of his tiny little bag Link sat there with an expectant look on his face, although his eyes seemed smug to Lucina; she could swear that with every item he pulled out he seemed to get a kick out of the Shepherds reactions.

"You can use all of these?" Robin stammered in surprise and Lucina had a feeling that Link had thoroughly broken the tactician.

"Yes." Link replied, dully twanging the strap to his slingshot, his puzzle eyes were light and humorous. Well isn't he a snark, Lucina thought to herself.

"What- but how. That's… how." Robin was truly at a loss for words, "Who taught you?"

Link shrugged and this time Lucina saw a certain darkness in his eyes. Something was up.

"You don't know who taught you? Or did you teach yourself?" Robin asked for further clarification. Link shrugged again.

"You're not much of a talker are you?" Robin remarked, arms crossed. Link shook his head in reply, hands raised apologetically and a terrible thought entered Lucina's mind then. She looked from the eye markings on Robin's hand to the pyramid on Link's, and a connection was born.

"You don't remember do you?" Lucina asked then, slowly, carefully. She watched the pointy-eared's eyes for a reaction. But his entire body would have done. His shoulders fell and his head slumped.

"No." Link replied, his voice only a little above a whisper.

"Oh! Then he's.." Lucina heard Chrom say from his spot to the side of the bed.

"Like me." Robin said then, "You're like me aren't you? You don't have any memories of who you are?" Robin's voice was gentle, careful, there was no trace of the inferno who'd been angry about wasted reeking boxes before.

"Yes." Link agreed and a feeling of dread entered Lucina. Was he like Robin and Morgan then? Had he traveled across time or across continents? Had his mind not been strong enough to handle the boundaries?

"Lucina, do you know him at all?" Chrom asked then, looking earnestly at her.

"No." Lucina admitted, "I've never seen him before in my life. I have no idea who he is. He certainly isn't a part of my party."

She saw something in Link's eyes then she couldn't read. Was it relief? Sadness? Confusion?

"Robin, is there anything you can do for him?" Chrom asked, looking to his right-hand woman.

"I- I'm not sure Chrom.. I've barely been able to help myself and Morgan, I don't know if I've learned enough to be much help to Link.." Robin was clearly frustrated, "I wish I knew something I could do to help, I'm sorry Link- is there anything else you want?"

Link nodded then and immediately made a circular motion with his hand around his upper torso area. Absolutely everyone stopped and stared at him in befuddlement.

"Sorry, what?" Robin said with a confused tone that was shared by everyone. Link threw up his hands in frustration and got up out of bed, walked over to Chrom and tugged on the collar to Chrom's shirt, then he pointed at himself. Oh. Really?

"You want… a shirt?" Robin said stupefied.

"Yes," Link replied, grinning with his eyes again.

"Um. Ok. Right. Er- Donnel, could you go and-" Robin fumbled about for the words and Lucina couldn't blame her.

"Right on it Miss! I'll go and grab one of Chrom's spare shirts for him! No problem!" Donnel turned and dashed out of the tent, Link with one hand up in the air in a desperate motion to stop the boy before he left, but it was too late. What was wrong now? Lucina wondered.

"So…" Chrom said after a moment of awkward silence, "Link, are you a manakete?"

A what now? Link's eyes said with absolute confusion.

"A dragon." Lucina offered helpfully.

Link shook his head no in an exaggerated slow motion. Not a dragon.

"Then why do you have pointed ears?" Chrom asked, Lucina didn't even have to look to know that Maribelle was fanning herself from the offensive comment about one's 'physical oddities'. Link's hands dashed up to either ear, and a surprised look came across his face. Apparently he didn't know why either. Link shrugged.

"That's just one more mystery we'll have to solve then," Robin said getting up and stretching, "Now if you don't mind- I'm off to study battle strategy. If any of you need me, for anything, I'll be in my tent."

"I'll come with you," Chrom offered in that overly helpful way of his, blundering past the small forms of Libra and Maribelle.

"Great, great, you're always welcome Chrom. Lucina, what about you? What will you do?" Robin asked then from the door.

"I think I will remain here with Link, maybe I can help him to remember something." Lucina replied, trying not to blush. But really it seemed like she was the only one who could read his eyes. That seemed… important somehow. And for all she knew all it would take would be to point out that he's blonde for him to remember things, considering he'd forgotten he had pointy ears. Gods, she hoped she wasn't being foolish.

Authors Note:

As can be seen Lucy just wants to feel pretty and Link still just wants a shirt.

As you can see I went with the generic option for Robin, white haired lady, and shipped Chrom with Sumia just to keep things simple :3

I'm so glad people are enjoying this :D

I'm super afraid it'll just confuse people who don't know all the games but really I'm trying to write it so that it's understandable by people who might not have played one game or another ^^

End chapter 6


	7. Chapter 7

"I don't think I ever introduced myself, I'm Lucina, Chrom's daughter." The blue haired girl said, coming to sit on a stool beside Link's bed. Chrom's.. daughter? Link gave Lucina a speculative look. Link had heard her call Chrom 'father' when she'd realized that Chrom wasn't the one getting a checkup, but he'd sort of let his brain pretend she hadn't said that. They were practically the same age, that just didn't make sense.

Apparently sensing Link's confusion, Lucina added, "From the future."

From the future. Right. Which means that what, she's a time traveler? He had a feeling time travel was supposed to be a bit more complicated than this was suggesting. He must've still looked really confused because she spoke up again. "It's a long story, a really long story… for now let's just focus on you. Do you know what the symbol on your hand means? A friend of mine has it on the cover of a magic book,"

Link looked down at the top of his left hand, which without his glove on exposed the strange pyramid symbol. It basically looked like a bunch of triangles stacked on top of each other. And outside of the fact that he seemed to use it to accessorize practically everything he owned, like his sword and shield, he had no idea what it's significance was. It could've just been a pretty design for all he knew. But something deep in his gut told it meant something more; like it was his ground somehow.

"No." Link said with a sigh, absentmindedly tracing the bottom right triangle with his finger. He didn't know what it meant. He didn't know at all. And that just made him feel dumb, and he hated feeling dumb. He was supposed to be clever; to look at something and have an objective all figured out, right now though, he felt aimless.

"Well from my experience weird markings tend to mean things. Like the mark of the exalt." Lucina said after an extended moment of silence. Mark of the what now? Link wondered to himself, does she mean Chrom- her father's weird tattoo and her purple eye thing? She had the strangest eyes. They couldn't seem to decide if they were blue or purple, and one of them had his royal highnesses tattoo in it, which made Link think that maybe it wasn't a tattoo. Link was pretty sure that his pyramid-thing wasn't a tattoo either. So Chrom's mark was probably the exalt thing. Link tapped the area under his own eye, is it the symbol in your eye? He tried to ask.

"That's right." Lucina said with a nod, "Members of the royal family are marked with the mark of Naga, also called the mark of the exalt. Mine is in my eye, while Chrom's is on his shoulder. My sister Cynthia and my cousin Owain have them too."

Link sat there, cataloguing this information. So Lucina is a princess, from the future, with a magic eyeball birthmark. Ok, not unreasonable. Not really helping me though. Hang on… if she's a princess, from the future or otherwise, I bet she can read. His heart fluttered for a moment as he found direction. I bet she can read in all sorts of languages. His ran head-long to the drawing of his supposed family and the writing on the back of it that he couldn't read. Could Lucina read it? Did he trust Lucina enough? Did he dare show her it? What if she took it from him or made fun of him or… Ugh deku-nuts, just give it a shot. What's the worst that could happen?

"Is something wrong?" Lucina asked, and Link cringed. Had she been talking all that time? Crud. One second Lucina, Link held up a single finger to signal her attention, and then moved over to his belt-bags and pulled out the drawing; Lucina watching on curiously.

"A paper?" Lucina said curiously, but then Link unfolded it and showed her the portrait.

"Oh it's a painting! Is this your family Link?"

Link gave a sad little shrug, wishing desperately that he could speak properly, but as usual, his throat was closed and useless. Link flipped over the painting now and pointed at the words he couldn't read. Can you read this? Link gave Lucina a meaningful look, what does it say? Can you tell me?

"You want me to read this?" Lucina asked, looking Link in the eye for confirmation. Her mismatched eyes were disorienting, and he really wondered how well she could see out the crazy one. The marked eye was almost like a sort of black hole; trying to suck him in, something about it almost seemed condemning, as if it was trying to tell him that he didn't belong there… And that he should probably stop staring. Well now he felt terrible. Goddesses he must be embarrassing her… poor Lucina... goddesses he was embarassing himself just thinking about embarrassing her.. ugh!

"Link?" Lucina spoke up. Crud, I did it again, I left her hanging. Ugh…

"Yes." Link said, forcing the word out. After saying it he looked back down at scribble-scrabble that he faintly knew said actual words, doing his best not to make eye-contact with Lucina, he didn't want to get trapped in that eye again, didn't want to embarrass her.

"Well, I think I can read it. It's kind of strange; it's almost as if it was written in a language very similar to ours but not quite the same.. hmm one moment.." Lucina mumbled to herself, her speech becoming unintelligible as she began to read. Link leaned in closer, as if he could somehow glean the meaning of the foreign words just by being closer to them. There weren't very many words; only about 6, assuming that this language used normal sentence convention. Link really couldn't be sure, the most he knew was that it sure as heck didn't look like well, anything he knew how to read.

"Hmmm… got it!" Lucina exclaimed, head shooting up so excitedly that all Link could see was blue hair and golden crown.

"Oomph!" Link moaned, rubbing the area under his eye were the spiky part of her crowny-thing had hit him. She'd moved so quickly that they'd had a full-on collision, resulting in his having a bonked face from her surprisingly pokey tiara.

"Oh my gods- I'm so sorry! I really don't mean to keep doing this!" Lucina said quickly, "Is your eye ok? I really didn't mean to-"

Link nodded, moving his hand away from his face to show that it was injury free. I'm fine, really. Though it hurt less when you fell on me.. and then she had armor and stuff to poke him with… how is it that that tiny crown did more damage? Focus. Focus Link, back to business, stick to the main task at hand. Link pointed back to the drawing which had miraculously remained on her lap during the tiara-eye stabbing kerfuffle.

"Oh right," Lucina said, apparently remembering why Link had been eye-jabbed in the first place, "Now don't get too excited or anything it doesn't say much." Lucina warned him, and Link braced himself. That sounded like it was better than 'deku-tree paper company', any piece of information would be good, any at all. Link nodded to show that he understood and was ready for whatever it was.

"It says: 'The Family of Greil the mercenary.'" Lucina said warily, clearly watching him for a reaction, the crazy eye fixed right on him.

He gave her a reaction all right. Link's mind flew through about a dozen thoughts in that moment; my father's name is Greil? And he's a mercenary? And that's my family? Am I a mercenary? Really? Is that true? I thought I was better than that. I can't be… I do good deeds for people just for the sake of doing good deeds; not for money. Who are the others- my siblings? Blue haired kid looks like he's my age in the painting, is he a mercenary too? Is it because we're some sort of mercenary family that I can use a sword? And bow? And all that other random stuff I have? (Even the boomerang?) Because I'm a mercenary? Is being a mercenary really that bad? If I am one why am I so… so repulsed at the idea? Why does this whole thing seem so wrong? Like it isn't right- like it isn't me? Like it's someone else's story and not mine? Hylia's grace, being an amnesiac sucks. Maybe I just hate my job.

"Did you remember something Link?" Lucina asked then, "Is that your family?" She had flipped the picture upright again, showing the family of four he was apparently a part of. Link furrowed his brow and focused harder on the faces. Maybe, just maybe, if he could remember one of them he would have a ground to rely on. Come on, please, a name. Anything… anything at all, anything- Mist. That was it. That's her name. Thoughts came rushing into his head like the remembered pages of a book. The little girl with brown hair; her name is Mist. And she had a necklace that glows, and could use healing magic, somehow, and helped to save a princess… Zelda? No.. who the heck is Zelda? The princess' name was Elincia. Yea that's right. Elincia.

"Yes." Link said, finally feeling some form of confidence. He did remember something.

"That's wonderful! What is it? Er, can you tell me?" Lucina asked, clapping her hands together before hesitating, Link could guess her thoughts: oh yea, he doesn't talk. Oops.

"Mist." Link said, pointing at his… his sisters? His sister's face in the painting, "That's Mist."

"Mist huh? Wonderful! I'm so happy that you're remembering something," Lucina said with with a smile on her face. Link automatically broke eye-contact with her and ran a hand through his hair. Goddesses… if I'm some sort of low-life mercenary should I even be talking to a Princess? Even one from the future? Well if Lucina doesn't know I am one, and I'm not 100% that I'm one either, so, technically speaking I should be fine, right? Oh Nayru that sounded awful.

"So then, are you a mercenary too then? If Greil is your father, did you take up the sword for that reason too? It's not uncommon in families." Lucina said, crushing Link's less than fabulous reasoning. What do I say? Yes? No? I'm honestly not sure… For all I know I was a landscaper while Dad went out and killed people for rupees. May as well tell the truth, at least what I know of it. Link shrugged.

"Not sure? Or too afraid of what I might think?" Lucina asked curtly then, arms crossed. Well excuse me Princess! Link thought bitterly. Lucina had seen right through him with that freaky tattoo eye of hers. Link rested his head in his hands, she'd got him all right.

"Both." He said, hating to admit it but also amazed at how much talking he'd been doing. Apparently having nothing going on in your head made you quite the chatterbox.

"Well whatever the truth is, if it does turn out that you're a mercenary thats nothing to be ashamed of Link." Lucina said then, "I work personally with two, and theres another in camp as well."

She meant well but he still couldn't relax. A sword wasn't meant to be a tool for greed. It was meant for something else… something greater. Something courageous. Ack that sounded like some melodramatic pep-talk tripe but it seemed almost right… almost…

"LINK! PRINCESS!" Link looked up as in dashed tin-head, with a piece of dark fabric in one hand and a worried look on his face.

"Donnel?" Lucina said surprised, standing up from her seat next to Link.

"Your royal… huff… prestig...prestigious… huff…" Donnel was breathing heavy like he'd run the whole way. But from where? From what Link could tell Chrom's tent wasn't that far from the med tent, so why had it taken Donnel so long to get back in the first place? Why had he gone again? Link couldn't remember for the life of him. He knew that tin-head had had to go and get something though… but what?

"Nevermind the formalities Donnel, what's the matter?" Lucina asked, crossing her arms.

"Well firs' here's that shirt for ya Link!" Donnel tossed the fabric at Link, who caught it casually in one hand. Oh. That's right. He needed a shirt. Oh goddesses. He'd completely forgotten he was topless. He'd been topless the whole time. He'd gotten stabbed in the eye, topless. He was a topless mercenary's son… in bed… with a princess in the room. Oh Hylia, what a scandal. Link nodded thanks to the farm boy, all while quietly wondering if it would be awkward for him to put the shirt on now or if he should wait.

"Now as I was about to say- Nah's in a fit and Tiki's in er wreck too cause I guess Naga's sent a message. A whader-ya say urgent message. She wants Link to talk to Tiki, urgently cause of something ter do with rusty swords and pyramids and the smashing o' brothers not happening yet er something" Donnel explained in a single breath, "So Robin want's you in a shirt an' out there talkin to the Divine Dragon 'erself immediately."

The divine what now? Link wondered to himself trying to make sense of half of whatever Donnel had just said. Apparently it was serious because right then Lucina turned round and literally yanked Link to his feet.

"Quickly! Naga waits for no one!"

Link wanted more than anything to ask who in Hylia's name Naga was but what little confidence he had gained in the speaking department had flown away when Donnel had entered. It wasn't like he'd have had enough to ask about Naga. Or anything else for that matter.

End Chapter 7

Authors note:

Some real shenanigans are going down now and hopefully things will start to make more sense to you lot :3

Next chapter we'll get the queen of sass herself Naga, who is really hoping that Link comes without a shirt.


	8. Chapter 8

Link found himself standing awkwardly in front of two pointy eared dragon ladies. He had really only had time to pull on his boots and Chrom's really annoying single sleeved shirt before being shoved out of the tent and into a crowd of some forty odd people. Out of these forty people he only recognized a handful; those who had captured him and those who had healed him. Not exactly a reassuring mix. He'd lost track of Lucina in the crowd and for a moment stood stock still confused like a beamos shot in the eye before he was pushed forward into the center of the crowd; which had made a small clearing around the two dragon ladies.

He knew they had to be dragon ladies because they had pointy ears and apparently having pointy ears meant you also had a tendency to breathe fire and eat local goats. Link was pretty sure that that wasn't what his set of points meant though, cause he sure couldn't breathe fire, though goat sounded nice.

"Here he is! Here's Link!" Lucina said breathlessly, and he realized that she'd been the one to shove him through the crowd. "What does the Divine Dragon wish to say?"

"Naga is thankful that all parties are now present," Began the older looking of the two dragon ladies; this one had green hair and a very, very, little red dress. She also wore a crowny headpiece thing that looked like a brooch stuck to her bangs and for the life of him Link couldn't figure out how it stayed in place.

"Naga says that a terrible crime has been committed against our world," The younger one, a redhead with twin braids, continued. The crowd gasped. Apparently this crime, whatever it was, was serious.

"She says that it is a crime that penetrates time and space," Crown head added, eyes directed at Link like he was venomous.

"And that the persons responsible will have to pay the ultimate price," Braids confirmed, also glaring at him. Well crud. Whatever it was, they think he did it. Wonderful. Just wonderful. Did this Naga lady miss the memo about him not having any memory? Because she's pretty dumb for blaming an amnesiac for 'terrible crimes'.

"No, I did not." A great booming voice resonated across the field and immediately everyone around Link got to their knees. Except him.

"I am fully aware of your present state hero," A blinding light emanated in front of him then and in a sparkling haze a translucent image of a green haired woman appeared.

"Mother!" "Naga!" The dragon girls began chittering wildly. Apparently they didn't expect the green haired lady to show up.

"Silence." Naga said ominously, lifting a hand to quiet her dragon servant people. "You are Link, correct?" Naga asked then, looking him dead in the eye. A feeling of dread filled him then; this Naga was powerful. Incredibly powerful. Maybe more powerful than anything he's ever met before. He had a feeling he'd remember that sort of power.

"Y-yes." He forced the word out, doing his best not to break the Divine Dragon's gaze.

"Well you're not supposed to be here." Naga said, narrowing her eyes and crossing her arms. for the first time Link noticed that she didn't have a bottom end. Her dress just disappeared into a haze of sparkles past her waist. Oh goddesses he better not look at that. Don't stare at the dragon lady. Don't stare at the dragon lady.

"Well are you?" Naga continued, and he could have sworn that an actual hand touched his chin and jerked his face up rather than a ghostly not-really-there one.

"No." Link agreed, be brave Link. Courageous. You can handle this. You can handle this.

"Well you also are not the worst of woes to befall me." Naga said turning about on the spot and drifting, (gliding?) away on her feetless dress. Did she just blow me off? Link wondered to himself stupefied.

"A far greater crime has occurred; my greatest hero has been stolen from my gaze." She sounded genuinely angry. At least as angry as a ultra-serene dragon woman could sound.

"Naga- you don't mean?" Chrom began, from somewhere behind Link's left shoulder.

"I do young king, I do." Naga replied grimly, apparently confirming something absolutely mind boggling as Chrom and Lucina gasped. "King Marth has been stolen from time and whisked off to some other place beyond my sight." Naga said, bowing her head.

"Stolen? But how is that possible? Wouldn't I- wouldn't Lucina and I cease to exist then?" Chrom demanded, probably still kneeling. Wait what? Link was becoming increasingly confused. Who's Marth?

"I am using my powers to maintain the timestream, but if Marth is not found and returned soon- then I fear the worst." Naga said gravely.

"Find him? But how? Where?" Chrom continued, and Link heard the king get to his feet from behind him, "Who even took him?"

"Thanks to the good fortune of the appearance of Link, I can guess as to who has taken our hero king and to where he has gone." Naga said, shimmering dramatically. "We will find him…" She paused, obviously for dramatic effect, "In Hyrule. The land of the three golden goddesses."

Hyrule? Three golden goddesses? Something clicked in his head then. He knew something. something important… but what? what was it?

"Ah, the name is familiar to you is it not Link? Yes it would appear that your three goddesses has made an exchange. You for my warrior king."

Link's heart hammered in his chest. An exchange? Was that what happened?

"They did not choose to consult me on this matter in the least and rather took what they wanted; and you are no hero in my eyes. You are the mere 'hero of twilight'; not even the 'hero of time' or the 'hero of worlds' or the 'hero of winds'. You are the least of heroes in my regard. I look for far different traits in a hero than your goddesses, and unfortunately these traits do not coincide."

Link furrowed his brow and frowned. She didn't think he was a hero? He didn't know what 'hero of twilight' even meant but he knew it was important. He knew it meant something. He knew it meant absolutely everything and that this dragon had no right to insult him for it.. Instinctively he reached for his sword; only to remember that it was still in the med tent; he'd been rushed out of the there so fast he hadn't been able to grab it.

"Are you offended green-clad hero?" Naga asked then, "So offended that you would dare even consider smiting one called a goddess?"

A goddess? Oh deku-nuts. Link dropped his hand to his side. She was a goddess. That's why everyone took her so seriously. She was all powerful.

"Only one has ever smitten a goddess; and you are not anywhere near radiant enough to be him." Naga continued, "I can however offer you a proposition twilight-hero."

She was just toying with him. He could already guess what it was: get Marth back and I'll send you home and maybe be nice enough to restore your memories.

"Return to me my hero king and I will see to to it that you are returned to your Hyrule; and if possible, with your life restored."

Yup. Link called it. What do I need to do? Link wondered, guessing that her lady-dragoness was in his head.

"To begin we must gain contact with those who govern your world; we must learn if my beliefs are true. We must contact your three golden goddesses." Naga began, answering his internal questions. "To do this, three ancient relics long since buried must be recovered. This is a task well suited to our hero-in-green. In the desert lands of Ferox you will find the red stone, in the hated land of Plegia the green crystal can be found and as for the blue stone, it has been lost in the folds of time." Naga finished, "Are you up to this challenge you lone wolf?"

Link had a feeling the wolf line was a snap at him, but he had no idea what it was supposed to mean. What he did know though was that this was a quest. A goal. An objective. And it was easy. What, go find three ancient monster infested temples, search through them and find some magic rocks? Easy! Kill a giant boss monster maybe? No problem! Sure he had no idea where the the third rock was but he was pretty sure he'd been there, done that before.

"Yes." He said firmly. He just had to stock up on some potions and arrows, get a map of this place and head on his way to 'Ferox'; that was the first one listed, so naturally it was the first place. No big deal.

"Surely you do not mean for him to enter Plegia alone!" Lucina spoke up now. Deku-nuts. "If the risen didn't get him than the armies surely would!"

Link tried with all his might to summon words and to say with absolute confidence that he could handle anything that he came across. He'd fought all sorts of things before. He might not remember any of them, but he knew it. Deep within him. He could do anything. Absolutely anything. Instead he made an awkward grunting sound that might of accidently sounded like an agreement to all of the people around him.

"Of course, teamwork is something I expect in a true hero. He is welcome to take companions with him." Naga said coolly, though Link caught a glimmer of 'take that green-hat!' in her all-powerful goddess eyes; brimming with divine dragon power and, strangely, sass. "Link, I will allow you to select your traveling companions."

"No more than three!" Robin butted in, looking up from her kneel, upon realizing that everyone was staring at her, the white haired tactician brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and then said, "I mean the shepherds can only spare three."

"Who do you choose Link? I'd be happy to recommend any of our warriors to accompany you," Chrom said helpfully, while Robin stood behind him with a mildly panicked look on her face, "Not Cherche!" Robin whispered in Chrom's ear, loud enough for Link to hear. Link watched this exchange and couldn't help but marvel at the ridiculousness of the situation. Here an actual goddess was standing two feet away from him, was seriously mad that her favorite human had been taken from her, and meanwhile the white haired inferno was worried that Link might take away her favorite toys.

"Well Link, who is it? Who will you bring with you?" Lucina asked then, and now panic set in. He looked from person to person. He didn't know any of these people. Some were big, some were small. And while some wore crazy armor from top to bottom, another was wearing panty hose from top to bottom. He didn't know any of these people. And not all of them seemed to like him. The two with animal ears wrinkled their noses in his general direction and whispered 'wolf' back and forth to each other, and the brown haired man rocking a bow tie underneath his armor would not stop frowning at him. He only had one person here he could trust. One person to turn to. Could he say the name?

"You." Link said then; unable to say her name after all. He set his hand on her shoulder. Will you come with me? Lucina… will you come? Out the corner of his eye he could see Robin and Chrom bickering silently. Would they let her go? He sure didn't want to take the scary chick in the panty-hose suit.

"I-" lucina looked back behind her at her father and Robin, who had stopped bickering the moment she looked their way; and then back back again first at Link then at Naga. Naga gave the slightest nod of reassurance; an action that would have been missed if Link hadn't been watching for it.

"I will join you Link on your quest, together we can return to you your memory and the hero-king Marth to his throne and time." Lucina said nodding confidently. Thank you Lucy! Link thought nodding, thank you! Now hopefully I can get out of here with just you and you can point out all of the ins-and-outs of whatever we might have to fight. Like the purple redeads.

"Lucina I simply cannot allow you to go to Plegia alone!" Chrom broke in then. What am I? Chopped liver? Link wondered then, unimpressed with tattoo.

"Father I will not be alone- I will be with Link," Lucina reminded her father, nodding at Link who promptly straightened his back and tried to look as heroic and knowledgeable as possible.

"Yes, this is true. But this is Plegia we are talking about. With Grima's eminent arise I cannot let you go without all precautions taken. Frederick will accompany you two on your journey."

"Frederick?!" Lucina complained before immediately regaining her air of seriousness, "Father, are you certain you can give him up? He is your right hand man and-"

"It's because he is my right hand man that he is going with you. I wouldn't want anyone else keeping an eye on my daughter."

"Sire," The brown haired man in the tie who had been frowning at Link before spoke up, "I will do whatever it is you wish of me. However even I do not know the roads of Plegia." This guy must be Frederick.

"He makes a fair point." Chrom admitted, clearly stumped, "How are they to find this gem if they cannot even find the road?" You could give us a map, Link thought dully. And it's safer to travel in smaller numbers...

"No problem." Robin said with a smirk, "I know just the person."

"Who?" Chrom asked, and Link had to agree. If Plegia was the bad guy who here could possibly be an expert on the area? He sure hoped it wasn't panty-hose suit cause she was looking up with interest now. Why couldn't they just give him a map?

"My husband of course" Robin said waving a ringed hand, "Henry."

"Oh me? Gosh Robin I should have realized that you'd want to send me on this potentially blood-spilling quest!" A white haired young man said, pushing past panty-hose suit and coming towards them. Was that sarcasm? "What a great gift! I can't wait to head out! I wonder how much blood I'll lose?" Not sarcasm. Oh Nayru not sarcasm. This guy was insane.

"Glad you're up for it Henry." Robin said with a grin.

"Ah, anything for you Robin" Henry said with a chuckle. How can he see? Link wondered as studied this 'Henry'. The guy hadn't opened his eyes yet once and Link couldn't help but wonder if the gold eyes that decorated his collar could see for him.

"So Link, is this team suiting for you?" Naga asked then. Deku-nuts. Link had forgotten the goddess was there, "The Princess from the line of heroes, the wary watchdog and the plegian dark mage all working together with the Hero of Twilight to rescue the warrior king of ages from a world of crumbling temples and distant gods." Naga smirked as she finished and Link had a feeling the goddess had taken another crack at him in there, but he wasn't sure how exactly, again.

"Yes." Was all he could say, he had no other words he could offer after all. All he knew was that he had the one Princess he knew he could trust here to to help him; and from the looks of it a very handy swordsman and a magician of some sort.

"Then I wish you a goddess's luck, hero of twilight." Naga said coolly, "You will need it if you wish to survive in my world; here there are no fairies to heal you if you should fall, Hero. There are no fairies."

End chapter 8.

Authors Note:

Naga hun you have no idea what is going on. No idea at all.

So if Ike is in Hyrule, and Marth is not- where in the world is the warrior king?

Hopefully he still has all his clothes; although the track rate for clothes has been pretty small.


	9. Chapter 9

Marth was really starting to wonder if this had been such a good idea. He couldn't deny the fact that it usually wasn't recommended that one leap straight onto a dragons back and then try to take it down from the air. But he had a mission and a purpose and both those things went well above self preservation. Not that he had much to preserve. He had no idea who he was. He'd woken up a few days ago on some goddess-forsaken cliffside with a splitting headache, his left wrist probably broken and just one name: Palutena. He had to protect her. Above all else, he had to protect her. His own name came to him about a day later when he'd found some peasant-doctor to see to his wrist who told him that yes, it was broken. Good job Marth, be thankful it wasn't your sword hand. Try not to pay too much attention to the annoying itchy cast. It's too bad you have no idea what you did to yourself. Yes, that trip to the doctor had been most helpful… too bad he was probably about to do even worse to himself than break a wrist.

He did his best not to look down as he crept along the back of the dragon; using it's massive spines for support from the wind and his own clumsiness. They had to be some thousand or so feet in the air. Had to be. The city down below looked like a childs toy and the people were nothing more than small specks… drat he was looking down again. He jammed his eyes shut and held onto the nearest spine for dear life as a wave of fear trembled through his body. If he fell he'd break more than a wrist. He'd break everything and die. And he couldn't have that. No. He had a job to do; one that came before everything else. He had to kill this dragon. He just had to ram his sword into the great thing's skull. Which meant climbing it's neck and somehow getting around the probably venomous spiked frills that surrounded it's face like a lions mane. The dragon turned suddenly and quick as a flash Marth grabbed hold of one of the spines as the flying citadel of Sky World came into view. Drat! He was running out of time. Time to throw any and all self preservation out the door and climb the goddess-forsaken dragon. Marth practically threw himself up the thing; drawing his sword only when he reached the wall that was the dragon's frills. His left wrist protested as he held onto the last spine with his injured hand; his right one slashing through dragon-neck frill with Falchion. Augh. How detestable. Green dragon slime oozed down around him now as he continued his climb; slashing whenever a piece of squishy dragon anatomy got in his way. Finally he was at the top of the thing. All he had to do was drive Falchion into it's skull and it would be over… he'd have saved the goddess Palutena and done his duty. Yes.

Only that's not what happened. Instead the dragon flipped up it's head and swallowed him whole. Goddess! Marth sliced his sword uselessly as he fell head first into the dragons mouth. Augh! Gross! No! No no! I am not going to be eaten by a dragon! Not today! No! He slammed his sword into the dragons upper jaw, securing himself from being eaten and causing the beast to buck and rear, shaking Marth about like a rag doll. Regret. So much regret. Why hadn't he slain the beast faster? His left hand was probably going to wind up more broken than it already was. He held on desperately, bouncing his feet off of any sort of foothold that came to him- the teeth most frequently served this purpose. The worst of it was he knew it wasn't over; while he was hoping that his hand wouldn't give out and send him spiraling down the dragon's throat he could hear the sound of smashing and yelling coming from outside the dragon's maw. Then everything stopped and everything became so quiet that Marth could hear his own heart beating. The dragon was still breathing. It just wasn't moving anymore. While this was very confusing, on the plus side it wasn't trying to eat him anymore. What in the world? His ears were ringing from the crash but he could still make out some words from outside of the dragon head:

"Palutena! What the heck!"

"Viridi do you think I planned this?"

Palu- did whoever that was say Palutena? Marth's heart pounded as he stumbled to his feet; he'd fallen during the apparent crash landing. Unfortunately his movement also seemed to stir the dragon as he felt the head start to move. Crud. It also became a lot warmer in there. Uh oh. Not today scale-face, Marth thought to himself, pulling his sword from the dragon's upper jaw, a red glow forming at the back of the dragon's throat. I am not going to be char-broiled-Marth, uh-uh, not today. Sword in hand he ran headlong and leapt out of the dragons opening muzzle, flames licking his cape behind him. As he erupted out of the dragons mouth and swiveled about to face the beast Marth made out two feminine shapes that he guessed were Palutena and Viridi from the previous shouting.

"Do not panic goddesses- I am here to help" He said, tattered and burned cape billowing out behind him dramatically as wind flew in through the dragon shaped hole in the wall.

"Um. Who are you?" One of them asked; Marth couldn't be sure which with his eye on the dragon.

"I am Marth." He replied before leaping up and summoning the power of Falchion, smashing the beast's skull with a solid sword strike. Ha! The dragon exploded beneath him as he landed on the ground on a single knee. Getting up he swished his sword flamboyantly in a bit of a victory stance before sheathing it; wincing as he remembered his broken wrist. Ow. He'd probably broken it even more.

"Um, wow. Did a mortal just slay a dragon?" One of the two goddesses spoke up then.

"I- I think so," The other one said dumbfounded.

"How is that even possible?" The first one spoke again as Marth turned around to face them, hoping that they hadn't noticed his weakness at his broken wrist. The one who had just spoken was a blonde, who looked a little younger than him but he knew better. She was a goddess; she was older than 10, 15 or even 100 of his lifetimes. The other of the two goddesses she.. His breath caught in his throat; it was her. She was Palutena. With long green hair and shining divine gold decorating her pearly white dress…. immediately he got down on one knee.

"Palutena. Forgive me for this intrusion… I" It occurred to him that he had no idea what to say. It also occurred to him that he had a strange feeling that he was usually the one being kneeled at. "I caught word of those who would destroy you by sending this dragon to your palace and so I decided to hunt it myself,"

"You… what?" Palutena was clearly at a loss.

"Did you say your name was Marth?" The blonde one, Viridi he supposed, spoke up again.

"Yes." Marth said firmly, not making eye contact with either of them. He wasn't worthy.

"Isn't he Naga's…?" Palutena began, although softly, was that supposed to be a whisper? It occurred to Marth that she must be speaking off to the side to Viridi, must not realize I can hear.

"I... think so?" Viridi said then, "So what's he doing here?"

"I have no idea." Palutena hissed back. They were both embarrassingly bad at whispering… "You don't think she's trying that rusty sword thing on us again is she Viridi?"

"Nah I bet she's just jealous that Pit got a whole new franchise when he got put into brawl and all she got was a lame 'Japan Only' label even though both her guys had american games out!" Viridi hissed back.

"You don't think she took Pit do you…? Out of jealousy?" Palutena began carefully, Marth began to wonder how long it would take them to realize that he could hear them. Or at least acknowledge the fact that he'd been kneeling so long and had thwarted a plot against Palutena's life.

"Ooooh! I bet she did! That would explain why we can't see him on any of the scrying mirrors- he's in ah-can-e-ah or whatever!" Viridi growled. Ah-can-e- what? The name was almost familiar but it sounded very bruised and dinged up.

"I don't know, it seems out of character for her.. Naga tends to be pretty lax about all that. She didn't even complain when her hero got less screentime in the subspace emissary than everyone else." Palutena said thoughtfully then. Subspace what? Marth was really losing track of where this conversation was going. And his wrist hurt. Did goddesses know how to heal mortals? He wondered distractedly, trying not to pay attention to their conversation.

"So what do we do? We can't just leave him sitting there." Viridi whispered.

"Just follow my lead, kay?" Palutena hissed then before finally speaking louder, "Marth, er- thank you for slaying this dragon. Please, stand and tell us.. what exactly, um brought you here?"

About time. Marth thought to himself, thankful to get off his knee.

"Palutena," He said with a bow to his head; he still would not look her in the eyes. "I was traveling in the mountains when I heard word of some evil monsters who sought to destroy you. So I found these monsters and discovered that they planned to unleash a dragon on Sky World, only by the time I had arrived they had already released the dragon from its hold and so I-"

"You jumped on the thing and decided to kill it?" Viridi finished for him, clearly impatient.

"Well, yes." Marth agreed, shifting awkwardly on his feet and grasping the top of his sheath in embarrassment. So far, of what little he knew of himself, he knew he was a man of far too many bad habits. Including holding his sheath or hilt incessantly whenever caught on the spot. Palutena exchanged a glance with Viridi before speaking again.

"Thank you Marth!" He looked up now, he couldn't help it. He looked right into the goddesses eyes and say genuine thankfulness on her face. I… I pleased her? After all that they were saying before, I actually pleased her? And here I had feared they didn't want me… that in coming here I had done wrong… I.. I did good.

"Y-you're welcome." He replied, "I only did what was right and I was capable of doing and-"

"You did wonderfully! Really! But I have to ask; how exactly did you well, get here?" Palutena asked, cutting him off before he could babel any further. What? What a peculiar question, shouldn't that be obvious?

"I rode in on the dragon." He replied, doing his best not to show confusion.

"Well yes.. but no, I mean.. how did you get here? I mean that is to say.. how did you…" Palutena looked at Viridi for apparent help, "I'm not doing a very good job at this am I?"

"No. You're not." Viridi huffed, arms crossed.

"Have I done something wrong?" Marth asked carefully, really hoping that displeasing the goddess who ruled over Sky World didn't mean getting catapulted out the window, left to drop two thousand or so feet to the ground… splat.

"No! No of course not! At least, I don't think you have. It's just, Marth, aren't you supposed to be in Altea?" Palutena said at last, concern etched on her face.

"Altea?" Marth frowned. He had no idea what Altea was, although he supposed it must be a place. He certainly had no recollection of ever having been there however.

"Yes, Altea- you know, it's a country… with swords and magic and… stuff." Palutena said helpfully.

"Your kinda it's poster boy." Viridi added. Poster boy? What? What were they talking about? Obviously he was supposed to be here.. he was supposed to protect Palutena. That was his job. His goal.

"I beg your pardon, Goddess," Marth said taking a deep breath and straightening his back in a futile effort to appear taller. "But I believe I am intended to be here. And while I may be from this, Altea place, that is in the past. A past that has been cast in shadow to me. Now however, I realize my purpose is to serve the light- to serve and protect you, Palutena. That is, if you will take me."

"Marth- um. Wow… o-kay.. um. What exactly do you mean by your past being cast in shadow? Because um, shouldn't you be looking into that first? I mean, I'm flattered but your um a.. your er- your a mortal and it's very, very dangerous to serve me if you're a mortal. I mean theres monsters and angry gods and how would we ever get you anywhere? You can't fly and…" Palutena blabbered on and Marth's heart sank. She didn't want him. She was searching for excuses. No! Something must be wrong.. something big, terrible… something was severely troubling the goddess, but what?

"Palutena, the threat of the dragon came because the monsters said you were unprotected. Whether you will take me or not, know that I will protect you. Your light comes before my life." Marth said firmly.

"He has a point about this place being unprotected." Viridi mused, "Without Pit around it's been a bit of a monster playhouse."

"Pit's absence is not that much of a security risk!" Palutena argued flustered, "Certainly not one so big that we'd have to take on a mortal boy"

"Palutena, a dragon smashed through your wall and he killed it." Viridi pointed out. The nature goddess was on his side? And who was this 'Pit?' He kept hearing mention of him.. first from the monsters who sent the dragon and now again and again from the goddesses themselves.

"Who is Pit?" Marth asked, perhaps with more outspokenness than he was due. He watched as Palutena wilted; shoulders slumping, glow fading, gravity-defying hair sinking.

"Pit is our angel." Palutena said carefully, "And he's disappeared. And we've run out of places to look. He is not on Earth and he is not on Sky World. He isn't even in the Underworld. Without him Sky World stands without a captain for it's guard- essentially defenseless." Marth's heart reached out for the broken goddess. He had to help her… surely there were more places for a person to be than just those three? In fact… of course!

"Is it possible that Pit has traveled to another continent?" Marth suggested. He wasn't really sure what he was saying, but it sounded right. There were multiple worlds. Perhaps Pit had simply gone to another.

"Another continent? Do you even know what that word means?" Viridi growled, "If he were simply on another continent i'd know. Continents are part of earth. Earth is part of nature. Pit isn't on Earth. So he's not on another continent."

"Viridi- no, he is not mistaken." Palutena said softly, not 'whispering' like before, but sad. "Where he is from continent is another word for world; he's suggesting that Pit is in another world. And I fear he might be right."

She think's I'm right? Marth thought to himself with a little more pleasure than he should get from the situation.

"Wait so then are you saying that Marth came here and Pit went there?" Viridi said then, pointing vaguely outside.

"It wouldn't surprise me." Palutena said with a little shrug, "Of course we'd have to check to be sure and for all we know he's in one of an entire plethora of worlds; he could be anywhere."

An idea struck Marth then. A way to serve the goddess. Yes.

"I will find him." Marth said then, hand clenched on his hilt.

"You will?" Both goddesses said at once surprised.

"Yes. If a mortal is not fit to protect the goddess Palutena than surely a mortal can find the one who is."

"That's actually not a bad idea…" Palutena said trailing off.

"Are you kidding? It's a terrible idea!" Viridi exclaimed, "Mortals are messy and clumsy and break easily and ruin nature!" Well that's just a little blunt, Marth thought to himself, mildly amused.

"I of course will require your guidance; I do not know the way to other continents. Or where to even begin searching, however… I will do as best as a mortal can for you, Palutena." Marth said, deciding to disregard Viridi's anti-human statement.

"I accept your help Marth, although I'm not entirely sure how it will work.." Palutena admitted, "But I do know where we can start."

"Then it is settled." Marth said with a nod, "I will however require some time to prepare and a few supplies"

"What for?" Viridi asked, daggers in her eyes.

"In case you hadn't noticed, I am covered in dragon slime, have a broken wrist and haven't eaten in a great number of hours. Also, I require sleep. I am sorry if mortals take more upkeep than you'd like, Viridi."

"Very well, consider it done Marth." Palutena said with a soft smile, "Viridi, if you would join me in the preparations? We have much to discuss."

"Fine." Viridi sneered, rolling her eyes, "I guess we need someone to save Pit anyways.."

"Precisely, and I have a feeling he will do us proud." Palutena said, before putting a palm to her head. "Oh! I almost forgot! We simply cannot let that nasty breeze keep coming in can we?" And with a wave of her hand she closed the dragon shaped hole in the wall as if it was never there.

"Now Marth, shall we?" Palutena turned to face him now and grinned wildly, "We're gonna need to do a lot of work if your gonna be angel-saving ready."

"Work?" Marth gawked nervously, not quite sure what she meant. All he really wanted was a bath and some food.

"Of course! You really don't expect me not to use my Palutena-glamour-sense on you do you?"

"I- of course. Do as you will, goddess." Marth said, mentally preparing himself for the worst. He would have to be brave if he was going to survive here; a mortal in an angels world.

END CHAPTER.

Marth clearly needs to show those skyrim guys a trick or two when it comes to slaying dragons. I mean really whoosh! It's dead!

Course he's got a magic dragon tooth sword of all powerful ness, but come on, is slaying a dragon really that hard?

Stay tuned for more :D


	10. Chapter 10

"What do we do about him?" Viridi questioned once the door to the den was safely closed. They'd left Marth to sleep after feeding him, healing his wrist and getting him clean clothes. Admittedly those clothes were Pit's and were designed for people with wings, but hey, anything was better than dragon slime covered blue shirty coaty things. The warrior king was now sound asleep in Pit's room, eerily wearing the angels boys white toga inspired look.

Palutena plunked herself ungracefully down on the coach and poured herself a cup of tea (Viridi's secret recipe!) and tried to relax.

"I honestly don't know Viridi. First Pit disappears and Marth appears pledging his life to me. It's all very flattering but honestly I'm worried."

"Worried? Just worried?" Viridi said, raising a brow and sitting down across from her, picking up her own cup of tea.

"Ok, a little more than worried. Is it just me or did marth seem a little- er, broken to you?" Palutena said, fumbling about for the right word.

"A little? More like a lot!" Viridi agreed, "The mortal doesn't even remember the name of the country he rules let alone the fact the he's a king! And he shouldn't even know who you are."

Palutena sighed defeatedly, part of her had really been hoping that his brokenness had all been in her head. Naturally, it wasn't.

"You don't think somethings gone wrong with the newest smash bros integration?" Palutena suggested, desperate for an answer.

"What that? Nah. This Marth doesn't have unicorns on the back of his cape. Whatever it is, it's something bigger. And weirder." Viridi replied, slurping her tea.

"But what?" Palutena said, really wishing that the Nature goddess would just give her an answer so that she could stop worrying. And thinking.

"Why don't we ask him? He probably knows more than we do." Viridi suggested, reaching for a teacake.

"No. i don't think so. I don't think he knows anything. In fact… I get this feeling," Palutena paused. She had a closer connection to mortals than Viridi did; she understood their fears and worries on a deeper level than the nature goddess could even begin to understand.

"You get this feeling…?" Viridi probed, half a teacake in one hand, her teacup in the other.

"I don't know… I get this feeling that something very, very, terrible happened but has been wiped from his mind. He didn't break his wrist riding that dragon Viridi. Someone else broke it. Forcefully." Palutena paused, trying to recall the empty gap that surrounded the blue haired boy. "Someone put Marth here, intentionally. And I don't think it was Naga. If anything I wouldn't be surprised if she wasn't in the same mess we're in."

"What, you think she has Pit? I don't think she can handle angels." Viridi said, wrinkling her brow, "At least, not that angel."

"I don't know if Naga has Pit so much as someone has him- I feel…" She focused again, trying to reach into the memory of light and shadow that permeated around Marth. Nothing. Ugh. Whoever did this to him was very thorough. They didn't want to be known.

"You think that these two aren't the only ones?"

"I don't know what I think. I can't be sure of anything. The most I know is something very bad happened and we need to find Pit and contact Naga. As soon as possible." Palutena said, folding her hands in her lap.

"Contact Naga? But she's like crazy hard to call up! We don't have that Fire Emblem thing you need-"

"I think it's a shield." Palutena said helpfully.

"Whatever, we don't have it." Viridi sniffed, taking another large bite out of her teacake.

"Then we'll start by finding Pit." Palutena said firmly.

"And how will we do this?" Marth's voice entered the scene and Palutena nearly jumped out of her divine-skin as the blue haired boy entered the room. "I am sorry," he apologized almost immediately, giving a slight bow, "I did not mean to eavesdrop, however I was unable to sleep and-"

"It's all right Marth," Palutena said, cutting him off before he could go on some long ramble of contractionless forgiveness. "We were just discussing that actually. Please come, sit, have some tea."

"Um! Don't have any tea!" Viridi said hastily snatching the teapot away before Marth could even move.

"Viridi, is that very polite?" Palutena asked delicately, really not in the mood for any mortals-are-evil shenanigans.

"Yes, actually it is, this stuff is potent enough to snuff out a mortals life in a single sip. It's fine for us goddess, but a mortal, well," Viridi ran a finger across her neck. "Dead."

"Oh of course, how could i have forgotten?" Palutena said, doing her best to chuckle lightly as she remembered that Pit could drink the tea by the bucketful, "Sorry Marth- no tea for you, but do come and join us."

"Thank you," Marth sat down on the chair adjacent the two couches; clearly not considering himself worthy of coming any closer to the goddesses. Goodness he's broken… he's a king, a king above kings and here he's too scared to speak up.

"Now as I was saying, I was thinking that we could use Ariadnes Golden String, have you heard of it Marth?" Palutena looked hopefully at Marth, who shook his head.

"I have not." He replied, looking strangely small in Pit's clothes rather than the bulky layers and giant cape he had first appeared in.

"Well, it's what lead Theseus to the Minotaur in the labyrinth and according to legend it can lead you to anything if you wish it hard enough." Palutena explained, watching Marth for a reaction. He gave none. He was a well trained politician after all.

"And where can it be found?" Marth asked, expression unchanging.

"Well unfortunately for us it's in the center of the labyrinth itself." Palutena said frowning.

"That seems a little counterintuitive." Marth observed.

"Yes well, the problem is, the string can lead you to literally anything. And so it was too dangerous to just have floating about so it was sealed away inside of a nearly impenetrable labyrinth, filled to the brim with monsters, traps and other horrors." Palutena explained, amused at his observation. Was that humor maybe? He certainly was no Pit, but maybe it wasn't the end of the world that they had Marth.

"Sounds wonderful." Marth murmured before then saying much more firmly, "When do we leave?"

"Leave? Aren't you the least bit scared?" Viridi demanded, arms crossed, "Thats the labyrinth we're talking about. It's dangerous."

"I have faced danger before and will inevitably face it again and again. If my facing the unknown chambers of the labyrinth will bring Sky World to safety then I will do it. And I will do it again and again until I can be certain that no harm shall befall this place." Marth replied simply.

"O-kay then. Why don't we get you prepped up at the weapons altar and get going then, all right everyone?" Palutena said, not really sure where to go from there. Did he say things like that often? She hoped not. They were real conversation killers. "So you go get prepped up and Viridi and I will figure out how to get you over there without incinerating you, got it?"

"Yes Palutena." Marth said with a bow, shockingly not questioning the incinerating thing. Was this guy insane or something? Oh well, sane or not it didn't matter. All that mattered was that they got to the bottom of this. That they found Pit and got Marth back together and fed-ex'd back to Naga. Even if they had to put the king back together with duct tape. They'd figure this out. They had too. For Pit.

END CHAPTER 10.

WHAT 2 CHAPTERS IN ONE DAY? WHAT IS THIS NONSENSE?

AND WHERE THE HECK IS PIT?

He really must be having a hard time explaining the wings.

Never mind the bishounen tendency to strike silly poses.


	11. Chapter 11

Marth stood in front of the weapons altar, examining all of the missing angel captains gear with a critical eye. He couldn't guess what half of the weapons that lined the wall did and the fact that someone knew how to handle all of them amazed him. No wonder Palutena didn't want him. She wanted this 'Pit' back because he was clearly the more diverse warrior. All Marth knew how to handle was a sword. Which strangely enough seemed to be about the only thing this 'Pit' didn't know how to use. There were blade-like weapons but they were bent strangely and looked more like wacked-out firearms than a true sword. Clearly this weapons altar would be entirely useless to him. No matter, he had Falchion. And somehow he knew that that was the only blade he would ever need. Not that he knew where it came from. Or why it was named Falchion when it was clearly a long sword and not curved like well, an actual falchion.

Palutena's blatant rejection troubled him greatly. It made him feel aimless, without an anchor. What am I supposed to do? Marth wondered, if I'm not intended to protect Palutena- then what? All that babble before about being intended to rescue Pit and such was only to keep her from casting him away entirely; to at least have a goal to accomplish. To make himself useful… She could probably sense that though; she was a goddess after all. What little Marth had on him didn't help either. Outside of his sword and now destroyed clothes all he had was a handle of gold pieces and a tiara. Not exactly world-changing stuff there. The most he knew is that the tiara was incredibly important and meant absolutely everything to him. Even though it made him look like a girl. It figured that the only clue he had to his past and who he was made him look like a failing cross-dresser. Not that it gave him much of a clue. It was gold, simple, and worn like a headband rather than a normal circlet crown which amplified the femininity it emitted. It should be thoroughly embarrassing to wear but he couldn't cast it away. Because somehow, and he couldn't remember how, it was the most important thing in his possession. And it was a girl's tiara.

If he were braver he would ask Palutena about who he was; she certainly seemed to know. All too well in fact. Probably part of the reason why he wasn't wanted here was because of his true identity; whatever that might be. Apparently it didn't lie with protecting goddesses. But then somehow… he set his eyes on Falchions shiny blade. It was made of something other than metal that Marth couldn't quite name. Somehow he knew he'd helped those who were far greater than himself.

"And I'll do it again if I must." He said aloud, swishing Falchion for good measure.

"Good. Glad someone likes being the center of attention," An unfamiliar voice drawled. Huh? Marth turned around to see a boy of only about 13 or 14 wearing the melanistic opposite of what he was wearing. He also had wings. An angel?

"Who are you stranger?" Marth asked, sheathing Falchion and severely hoping the dark angel hadn't seen him make too much of a fool of himself.

"I'm Pit," The dark haired angel said running a hand through his hair, "Well, Dark Pit. Or 'Pit-Two' if you're asking Palutena. You must be Marth."

Dark Pit? Pit-Two? What kind of names were those?

"Yes, I am Marth." Marth said narrowing his eyes as he held out his hand for 'Pit-Two' to shake. The angel didn't take it. Well clearly diplomacy wasn't one of his key skills. "Might I ask why you are here- Dark Pit?"

"To help keep Palutena's new mortal toy from dying." Dark Pit replied with a snort. Mortal toy? I am- that is… I am… drat he'd almost remembered something there but it was gone like a whisper on the wind.

"I am no toy. And I will not die." Marth said sharply, hand firmly on Falchion's hilt.

"You're a mortal. If you don't die today, then you'll die eventually. That's how it works." Dark Pit said, clearly enjoying Marth's agitation, which only served to agitate him further. "Anyways, I'm here strictly to find my copycat. You just happen to be along for the ride, got it? So don't get in my way."

Copycat? Whatever was going on here was increasingly confusing and well beyond Marth's realm of understanding. All he knew was that this impertinent bird-boy was getting on his nerves.

"I think that our efforts would be better suited if we were to work together. I imagine that is Palutena's plan anyways." Marth replied coldly, placing clear emphasis on 'Palutena's Plan'.

"Whatever mortal King. The most I know is that I can fly, you can't and so I'm getting you there." Dark Pit said with a shrug. What did he call me? Mortal… King? He felt a strange empty feeling in his gut; like that was supposed to mean something, as in, really supposed to mean something. But he drew a blank.

"What did you call me?" Marth asked Dark Pit then, mind flying as the word tried to bash it's way into his mind.

"Huh? Nothing. I called you mortal. That's all," Dark Pit said, although his eyes told Marth that he knew exactly what Marth meant. The bird-boy is playing games with me!

"King, you called me King." Marth asserted, although he could already guess that that was going to get him no where.

"Did I now? Why would I call you that?" Dark Pit asked, unable to conceal his snicker.

"That's what I would like to know." Marth replied, crossing his arms.

"Boys! There you are!" Palutena came in then and that was that. Marth wouldn't be able to learn what Dark Pit knew until later.

"Palutena." He said, immediately bowing. Dark Pit didn't even turn to acknowledge her.

"This scrawny mortal you've found won't last 30 seconds in the labyrinth Palutena," Dark Pit said, increasing Marth's desire to punch him in the face. He was beginning to see why he was called 'Dark' Pit. He was the sort of being who gave one the desire to eat gravel rather than deal with his mannerisms. In short; he was a jerk. A term which Marth had a feeling he very rarely applied to others but this little brat- ahem, angel, really deserved it.

"I'm sure he'll manage Dark Pit. Now do you both understand the plan? Marth, did Pit Two explain it to you?" Palutena asked lightly.

"I'm afraid we were so preoccupied with getting acquainted that he failed to relay any sort of plan to me, perhaps you could inform me, o goddess?" Marth said, doing his best not to give Dark Pit nasty looks as he spoke.

"Well. Obviously you, being a mortal, can't fly. But Dark Pit can. And both of you want Pit found. Sooooo basically Dark Pit is going to carry you to the labyrinth." Palutena explained brightly. Wait what?

"I am going to be carried by this- this-" Marth paused, reminding himself not to use the term 'jerk', "Stranger?"

"Yup! You got it! And then the pair of you will go through the labyrinth and find the string together!" Palutena said with a grin. Clearly she thought it was a brilliant plan. Well, he couldn't question a goddesses intentions.

"Very well." Marth said solemnly. If I must travel with a jerk then so be it. If anything I can at least find out what he meant by 'Mortal King,' "When do we leave?"

"Whenever you're ready," Palutena replied, "Pit Two, do you have everything you need."

"Yea." The angel said, holding up a shiny silver bow like weapon in one hand, "Duh."

Did he just said 'duh' to the goddess? Marth bit his lip and held ever tighter to the hilt of his sword to keep himself from fully berating the angel. Instead he said,

"I am ready to leave whenever best suits my ride,"

"Ride?" He heard Dark Pit hiss with irritation. "I'm ready right now. Get the gate open Palutena, I want out of this dump."

"Wonderful! I'll just let Viridi know and you'll be off!"

After she left the room again Marth considered his current situation. He had no memories. A magic sword. A nagging need to protect a goddess who had rejected him. An Angel hero to rescue and a jerk angel to put up with. A jerk angel who apparently knew just as much about him as Palutena did… Yes it was safe to say that things were not going well. Not well at all.

END CHAPTER 11.

SO I THOUGHT THIS WOULD BE A PIT CHAPTER.

I DID.

BUT THEN MARTH BUTT HIS BLUE HEAD IN AND WHINED AT ME UNTIL THIS HAPPENED.

WHELP.


End file.
